As According To Plan
by Guillum
Summary: What would happen if SG-1 took a bit of backup with them on one particular mission? Season 6 and onwards AU. Will probably include an SGA crossover later on.
1. Prologue

I don't own SG-1 or Atlantis, which is probably a good thing. No copyright infringement intended.

This is an SG-1/SGA AU starting with the events of the series 5 episode 'Revelations'.

Prologue

**Adara II, Milky Way Galaxy  
**

Three bursts of Cherenkov radiation and pseudomotion signalled the arrival of three large, tetrahedral vessels into the system. On the bridge of the lead vessel, a deep, flanged voice gave orders, and the vessels moved to establish themselves in orbit over the world beneath. More orders, and three powerful sensor arrays began probing the atmosphere and surface of the planet.

What the arrays did not discover, however, was the cloaked satellite in high orbit, which sent a preprogrammed, heavily encrypted subspace signal to it's extragalactic owners when it detected the three vessels.

The planet was somewhat of a mystery to the masters of these vessels, as it was uninhabitable to them, their human hosts and their diminutive but very powerful enemies, yet it had been included in the Protected Planets Treaty. The System Lords had suspected for some time that the world held special significance in the eyes of their enemies, but had never dared to provoke their wrath by investigating.

Until now.

These were Goa'uld ha'tak in the service of Anubis, one of the most ancient of the Goa'uld, and now one of the most powerful, thanks to Anubis' ascension. Osiris had been dispatched to investigate the planet, and if any enemies were found, they were to be destroyed, to make an example of those who would defy their true gods. Such was the way of the Goa'uld, a way that had served them well for thousands of years, and naturally the Goa'uld thought it would serve them for thousands more. Osiris was settled in his throne, idly watching the progress of the scans, passing time by tormenting his host with images of the inevitable enslavement and destruction of her world. His attention was brought swiftly back to the present, as the Jaffa operating the sensors addressed her.

"My Lord, our sensors detect a vessel emerging from hyperspace," he reported, with the due deference to his gods clear in his voice. "It's mass is consistent with that of an Asgard vessel."

"Very well. It would seem that we are unwelcome here. Bring the other ha'tak into formation, raise the shields and arm all weapons. We shall confront this intruder into our Lord Anubis' domain," Osiris watched as the Jaffa complied smartly with his orders, and within a few moments the Asgard vessel was within visual range. Osiris could see that it was a Beliskner-class vessel. Easy prey for his ships, he thought.

The Jaffa at the helm reported that the Asgard was attempting communication. "Put him on screen," Osiris ordered, rising imperiously to his feet. An Asgard face duly appeared on the screen.

"I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet. Your presence here is a violation of the protected planets treaty , and you must withdraw immediately," stated the grey alien.

"I don't think so," Osiris retorted smugly.

"If you do not comply, I will be forced to open fire," Thor warned. Osiris' smirk grew wider.

"Yes, I suppose you would!" he sneered.

Thor's reply was almost disbelieving. "You will be destroyed," he said.

Osiris openly laughed at the alien. "I am the great god Osiris, and gods cannot be destroyed!" Osiris' tone became softer, more deadly. "Surely you should know that!"

Thor's reply was resigned, sad almost. "Very well," he said softly. Immediately he fired upon Osiris' hat'ak with weapons that should've destroyed the Goa'uld ship easily. Instead, he was stunned to see the enemy's shields hold fast under the barrage of energy bolts.

Just before he returned fire, Osiris' reply was chilling in it's finality. "Our days of bowing to the Asgard are finally over," he said imperiously.

Too late, Thor realised his mistake, and attempted to flee into hyperspace, only to be struck by a barrage of plasma fire which ripped the shield generators from their mountings, smashed his hyperdrive systems and caused the reactors to shut down. Thor barely had time to send a distress call back to the High Council before his ship was completely disabled. Thor sighed. "That could have gone better," he lamented, in a manner not dissimilar to that of his Tau'ri friends.

As Goa'uld transport vessels approached his stricken ship he wondered how he was going to get out of this particular situation alive, for the Asgard had no other ships in this galaxy to spare for his aid...

--

Well, there we are, first chapter. What do you think?

This was just the prologue, the next chapter is more AU than this one.


	2. Chapter 1

And so the events of Descent are here. Spoilers for Meridian and Redemption.

Chapter 1.

**RAF Fylingdales, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom, 21st February 2003**

Located on the North York Moors between Whitby and York in northern England, RAF Fylingdales was a vital link in the UK/US missile warning system. The massive AESA radar was primarily used for detecting missiles launched from behind the Iron Curtain. Since the fall of the USSR, however, a new mission came along for the men of Fylingdales, and that mission was to track the ever-growing quantity of debris in Earth orbit. Mostly this was a mundane task of cataloguing spent rocket stages, dead satellites and orbiting manned spacecraft. Occasionally, though, interesting things did happen, thought Group Captain Jeremy Hargraves, the base commander, as he left the control room in search of a cup of tea.

One of these 'interesting things' happened back in 1997, when Hargraves was second-in-command of Fylingdales, two rather interesting contacts appeared on the radar screens. Several quick calls to their counterpart station at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland confirmed that they were not noise or faulty readings, but were in fact two objects, each about 750 metres across, approaching Earth from the direction of Saturn. The operators had thought they were asteroids, and the resident astronomers had agreed, right up until they started to decelerate and settle into orbit around Earth. When this had been reported to London and Washington, they immediately classified it Top Secret, with all the usual threats of lengthy incarceration for unauthorised disclosure.

Hargraves was walking back to the control room with several mugs of tea for himself and his colleagues, when his radio earpiece buzzed.

"Damn!" he exclaimed and searched quickly for somewhere to unload his scalding hot cargo, and swore violently in the best traditions of the British armed forces thanks to a scalded finger. Finding a small table he freed his hands and answered the radio.

"Hargraves here," he said irritably.

"Sorry to bother you sir, but we've got an anomalous contact," It was Flight Sergeant Emma Martin, the affable and very pretty chief radar operator.

"Very well, Flight Sergeant, I'm on my way to the control room now," Hargraves trotted back, quickly but trying not to look hurried in front of his people. That wouldn't do at all, he mused.

Flt Sgt Martin was communicating with Thule to verify the contact when Hargraves returned, nursing a swollen finger. "Did you sustain an injury, sir?" she asked.

"It had an argument with a hot cup of tea. What have we here, Flight Sergeant?" he replied, all business.

"Well, sir, it appears to be a large object, about 700 to 800 metres across and it's in a high orbit, currently over the North Atlantic. Thule confirms the readings," she reported. Fortunately, as she was concentrating on her equipment, she missed Jeremy's raised eyebrow.

"Right, I'll pass this one up the chain, thank you Miss Martin. Major Richards!" he called to the USAF liaison, "Have you seen this?" he asked.

"Yes I have Group Cap'n, I'm on the line to Major Davis at the Pentagon right now!" came the reply from the broad-shouldered Texan as Jeremy walked out of the room to call London. This was another 'interesting' day, for sure...

**The Pentagon, Washington DC, soon afterwards**

Major Davis replaced the phone back in it's cradle and immediately went to the departmental secretary, Master Sergeant Baker. "Baker, I need an urgent flight to Petersen and a car waiting there to take me to Cheyenne Mountain ASAP please," he requested. Returning to his desk he placed another call.

"Hello, Sergeant Harriman, I need to speak with General Hammond, it's urgent,"

**Stargate Command, soon afterwards**

"Thank you Major, I'll be waiting for you. I agree, it does look like that. I'll have SG-1 back from their current mission by the time you arrive." Finishing the conversation with Major Davis, Hammond turned to Walter.

"Sergeant, I want SG-1 back from their mission as soon as possible, we have a situation on our hands!"

**P7D-477**

SG-1 was out on a standard recon mission to P7D-477, a planet thought not to be in the domain of any System Lord, but, as Colonel O'Neill had said, "I don't want anyone sayin' that 'this isn't going to be a problem' or 'the planet is uninhabited' because that's the best way of getting ourselves a bunch of Jaffa right where we don't want 'em!"

Also, this was their first mission on foot without a certain bespectacled archaeologist, and O'Neill, Teal'c and Carter were feeling his absence. Brilliant though Jonas Quinn may have been, he was no Daniel.

So far they had not found anything of interest, no ruins, no stashes of advanced technology, not even an enemy ambush, so when Walter's voice came over their radios it was very welcome.

"Sierra Golf Leader, this is Sierra Golf Charlie, requesting your immediate return, we have a...situation here, over,"

The team shared a look, then O'Neill shrugged and replied into the radio, "Ah, we copy you Sierra Golf Charlie, we're on our way back now,"O'Neill gestured with his thumb back towards the Stargate, and the team spun back and started to retrace their steps, "Our ETA is 45 minutes from now, see you then, SG-1 leader out,"

It took less than a minute for the speculation to start.

"So, what do we reckon is going on back there, kids?" queried O'Neill.

"Perhaps a malfunction within the computer systems that requires Major Carter's expertise, O'Neill?"

"Not bad odds on that T, we have got a new gate after all," the colonel said. "Any other ideas?"

"How about a fleet of Goa'uld motherships in orbit, threatening to wipe us all out?" suggested Jonas.

"Bit of a cliché, but possible,"

"I think it'll be the Asgard wanting a chat, perhaps they want to thank us for rescuing Heimdall with some new technology," Carter opined, eyes gleaming at the thought of new technology to study.

"Oh, if only," said O'Neill, "It'll be the Tok'ra, wanting our help on some crazy-ass suicide mission,"

"Good odds on that sir," said Carter "They haven't done that for a while,"

The banter continued until they reached the Stargate. "OK Carter, dial it up!" O'Neill ordered. As they stepped into the event horizon O'Neill couldn't help but think that a big mess awaited him on the other side...

--

There we have it, the first proper chapter. This is my first time writing something such as this so suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!


	3. Chapter 2

Second full chapter, a bit longer than the previous two. As I said at the start, I don't own SG1 or SGA, I'm just playing in their sandpit!

**Stargate Command, Earth**

SG-1 emerged from the wormhole to see a scene of frantic activity in the control room. O'Neill glanced at the others. "It's something big, alright," he said, then they walked down the ramp, meeting General Hammond at it's base.

"Welcome back, SG-1. I asked you to return because we have a Goa'uld mothership in high orbit right now." he said gravely, missing Jonas' smug grin, but catching the looks of surprise on the other's faces. "Major Davis is flying in from Washington to conduct a briefing for us, he'll be here in one hour, which is when I want you in the briefing room. Dismissed,"

As the team walked out, O'Neill leaned in close to Jonas and said "Don't start grinning, that doesn't count, you said it would be a fleet and we've only got one!"

--

About an hour later, SG-1 were seated around the briefing room table when Hammond entered, followed by a frazzled-looking Major Davis.

"Thank you for returning early, SG-1," Hammond took a seat, while Davis remained standing. "Major Davis is going to brief us on the situation. Major?"

"Thank you General," Davis paused. "About three hours ago, our radar facilities in Greenland and northern England detected this," he clicked a button on a remote, and an identical image to that seen by Flight Sergeant Martin appeared on the screen, "contact in high orbit over the northern Atlantic Ocean. We managed to get an image of it from a telescope in Ireland," another click, and the familiar looming shape of a Ha'tak replaced the radar image, "There is, however, something odd about this ship. Since it's arrival, we have detected no activity of any kind whatsoever," he concluded.

Teal'c was the first to speak. "This is highly unusual behaviour for a Ha'tak vessel. Upon arrival over an enemy world, the Goa'uld in command will invariably contact the leaders of the world in question to demand their submission, and to inform them that if they do not comply, they will be destroyed. As a show of strength Alk'esh and gliders will sow fear and terror among the population," he stated.

"Whoa, hang on there T, when Apophis and Klorel paid us a visit, they loitered in orbit for nearly 24 hours before making a move. Might this guy be doing the same?" O'Neill asked.

"We think they waited because you shot Klorel, and Apophis wanted him to rise from the sarcophagus, at least isn't that what Bra'tac said?" asked Davis.

"Indeed," Teal'c rumbled, with a glance at O'Neill, who raised his hands in a gesture of surrender and leaned back in his chair. Jonas was the next to speak.

"Well, there's a ship up there, why don't we go up there take a look at it?" he asked.

"You think that we have a ghost ship up there Mr. Quinn?" said Hammond.

"Well sir, if we do want to go there and check it out then we have a bit of a problem," interjected Carter, "The cargo vessel we used to rescue Thor is being studied by a team led by Doctor Zelenka at Area 51, and they've determined that it's used all of it's naquadah fuel. Doctor Zelenka is trying to connect one of our own naquadah generators but they think it will take a very long time," she said, "The quickest way to get up there is probably to call the Tok'ra and borrow a ship,"

"Very well Major," said Hammond, "We'll call the Tok'ra, but if they can't help us then we're going to have to wait for this Doctor Zelenka to finish his work. Dismissed."

SG-1 filed out down the stairs to the control room. Major Davis approached Hammond. "Sir, if we can salvage the ship it could be very beneficial to the X-303 program. It would help them immensely to see and study a capital-ship sized reactor and hyperdrive, let them know if they're on the right track," he said, then stifled a yawn.

"Very true, Major. Until we hear back from the Tok'ra, I want you to get some rest," he said as the gate started dialling out, "If they go up there, I want you to go with them, Major, and I need you to be fresh."

"Yes, sir," the man said, and left the room in search of the VIP quarters. Hammond followed SG-1 down to the control room as the gate activated. Major Carter leaned toward the microphone.

"This is Stargate Command calling the Tok'ra, do you copy?"

There was about ten seconds of silence until they received their reply.

"Stargate Command, this is Aldwin of the Tok'ra. To what do we owe this pleasure, Major Carter?"

"Well, Aldwin, we need a favour from you guys," Sam replied

"We shall send an operative," Aldwin stressed the word 'operative', leaving Sam in no doubt as to who the operative would be, "to discuss your request for a 'favour' one hour from now," he said. "Aldwin out,"

Sam nodded at Walter and the shimmering event horizon disappeared into nothingness. O'Neill turned to the others.

"I'm going to head off and grab some cake while we wait, anyone wanna join me?" he asked.

"I shall accompany you, O'Neill, it has been many hours since my last meal" Teal'c stated.

"Carter?"

"Sorry Sir, I need to review the latest diagnostic on the superconductors," she said apologetically.

"Your loss," he said and turned to Jonas. Much to his surprise, Jonas shook his head, producing a sandwich and mug of coffee as evidence. O'Neill shrugged and gestured nonchalantly towards the exit, and he and Teal'c left.

--

Exactly one hour later the gate activated, and after the GDO code had been checked and the iris opened, Jacob Carter stepped out of the wormhole to see his daughter, Jonas Quinn and General Hammond waiting for him. Stepping off the ramp he greeted them warmly.

"Sam, George, Jonas, it's good to see you again. Where are Jack and Teal'c?" he asked.

"They were in the comm-" Sam started but was interrupted by the entrance of the colonel and Teal'c. "Never mind," she finished.

"Sorry I'm late kids, there was a bit of a queue in the commissary," Jack said. Catching the General's exasperated look, O'Neill switched his attention to their visitor. "Jacob! Great to see ya again! How are you and Selmak doing?" he asked.

"We are well, Colonel," Selmak answered, then gave control back to Jacob. "What's the urgent request?"

"We have a Goa'uld mothership in orbit of Earth right now," Alarm crossed Jacob's face, "So we need to borrow a scoutship, ours has run outta gas and we want to go check this thing out," the colonel said. Jacob looked worried.

"It would be able to shoot you down before you got anywhere near it!" he warned.

"Dad, it's been sitting there doing nothing for the past couple of hours, we reckon that if it were going to attack, it would've done so already," Sam said. Jacob relaxed slightly, and said apologetically, "Alright, but I can't lend you guys a ship, the Tok'ra are spread very thin right now. I can, however provide you with some refined naquadah fuel rods to get your ship flying. How's that sound to you?"

"That's great, Jacob, thank you," said General Hammond. Jacob turned to him and said,

"Hey, it's nothing, I need to go back to the High Council and get the naquadah, then we can get going. It shouldn't take long, we have some going spare for once!"

--

**Area 51, Nevada, Earth, 5 hours later**

SG-1 and SG-3 stepped out of the aircraft accompanied by Jacob Carter and Major Davis. General Hammond had ordered Colonel Reynolds' team to accompany SG-1, saying that "It's a 750 metre wide alien mothership that could have any number of Jaffa on board, it's better to be safe than sorry,". O'Neill had agreed, and here they all were.

They were greeted by an amiable, tousle-haired man with an Eastern European accent who Carter identified as being Dr. Zelenka. The Czech had asked if he could accompany the growing contingent. Seeing no reason to dismiss extra brainpower, and considering that he was the closest thing they had to an expert, Hammond had agreed.

"Greetings everyone!" he said, leading them towards the hangar building, "The ship is ready for the new naquadah fuel-rods," he said, as the fuel rods in question were led past them on a trolley. "We aim to have the ship ready within 30 minutes,"

"Thank you, Doctor. I assume Selmak will want to help out?" O'Neill asked.

"You assume correctly, Colonel," replied Selmak, following Zelenka and the naquadah into the hangar, where the scoutship was raised up in a gantry to allow access to the ship's small rear-mounted naquadah reactor.

--

20 minutes later, Colonel O'Neill was in the corner of the hangar and had just finished briefing Colonel Reynolds on the outline of his plan when Zelenka walked up behind him and cleared his throat. "Colonel, we have finished loading the naquadah rods," O'Neill looked at his watch, impressed. "Selmak is now conducting pre-flight checks. We estimate that a full load of new naquadah fuel will be enough for this ship to make several return flights to the far side of the galaxy," he added.

"OK then, let's mount up gentlemen!" O'Neill gestured towards the ship, and the eight SG team members, Doctor Zelenka and Major Davis strolled over to the ship. Once inside, Carter took the co-pilot seat alongside her father and contacted Stargate Command, which was acting as Mission Control. "Echo Base," O'Neill frowned slightly, "this is Scoutship One, we are ready to lift off," she reported. As she said this the ship rose slowly out of the hangar.

"You have a go, Major. I want regular check-ins once you get up there," Hammond replied over the radio. "Godspeed," he added.

"Right," said O'Neill, "Let's move, but I do have a question. _Echo Base_? Who made the callsigns for this mission?" he demanded of Carter, who could only glance guiltily at Teal'c, who bore his guilt with pride.

"It was in fact I who suggested the callsigns, O'Neill," he said, amusement plain in his voice.

O'Neill was not pleased.

"I might've known. And to think they wouldn't let me use 'Red Leader' when we did the X-302 flights!" he grumbled, as the Tel'tak accelerated towards orbit.

--

Another chapter done! As we see, the point of divergence from the canon events has occurred, ie. having SG-3 and Zelenka along as backup.

I decided against having McKay go along because his main area of expertise at this point is with the Stargate, and also Carter would probably end up kicking his ass if they were stuck together on a problem again!

I'm also stuck WRT a suitable title. The one it's got at the moment is rubbish, so suggestions for a better one would be welcome.

The next update may take a while as my university term is about to start, but I'll try and get the next chapter out this week. Updates may be less regular after that, but we shall see!


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**Scoutship One, in orbit above Earth**

The SGC crew had reached low Earth orbit, and were preparing to fire the ship's engines to increase their altitude to match the orbit of their target. The ha'tak was in a high orbit, beyond the network of satellites in geostationary orbit and was unreachable by any current human manned spacecraft. Major Carter and her father had made the calculations for their transfer orbit, and now were waiting for the appropriate moment to fire the engines.

Carter Junior was counting down the seconds. "OK, Dad, T minus ten seconds, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, burn!" The ship's engines burst into life with the vibration of the ship increasing in frequency. However, the occupants of the ship felt nothing of the strong acceleration, thanks to the ship's inertial dampers, and their altitude increased steadily for their rendez-vous. O'Neill asked a question.

"OK, we're on the final leg. How long is this going to take?"

"If we were doing this in say, a Space Shuttle and we had the fuel, it would take hours, sir," she said, "but here, thanks to the greater delta-v of the Goa'uld engines it will take us only take twenty-three minutes and seventeen seconds,"

"I know that!" said O'Neill, privately impressed that his interest in astronomy actually allowed him to understand what Carter was saying for once...

--

Twenty minutes later, the ha'tak was visible as a growing yellow smudge against the dark backdrop of space. Sam got busy on the sensors again. "Well, the good news is that the ship seems to be running on very low power, and it's making no evasive or aggressive moves," she reported.

"Not yet," commented Colonel Reynolds, who, thanks to a warm friendship with O'Neill had picked up a healthy dose of snark. "When are we going to know more?"

"In about one minute thirty seconds, sir," she replied.

Teal'c was next to speak. "Jacob Carter, may I take control of the vessel?" Jacob nodded and stood up, allowing Teal'c to take the controls.

"I believe I can alter our approach to be from a vector that the main weapons of the vessel cannot fire along," To punctuate what he was saying, a holographic image of a ha'tak appeared on the HUD, with red cones emanating from points all over the hull, overlapping all around the ship, except in one area. Teal'c continued, "The weapons cannot elevate in their turrets sufficiently to fire on targets directly above the vessel. I myself have exploited this weakness in battle a number of times while I was First Prime of Apophis," he said as he adjusted the scoutship's trajectory, "It will ensure that we have a greater chance of escape should the vessel prove to be hostile," he added.

By now the ha'tak was distinct in the window, growing rapidly. Carter's scans were becoming more conclusive. "While that was an excellent idea, Teal'c, it looks like it was unnecessary. There are no lifesigns visible and the shields are down. Most of the ship appears to be depressurised, apart from the bridge level and some of the engineering spaces," she said.

"Good thing we packed spacesu-" O'Neill started, but was cut off by "Ooh, that's strange," from Carter.

"What?" he said.

"The depressurisation was not the result of damage, at least as far as I can tell, but it seems to have been intentional, as the airlocks have been opened," she said. "we should be able to ring in to the bridge deck, though,"

"OK then, we'll proceed with our plan. Al's team," he said, gesturing at SG-3, "and ourselves will ring over and secure the bridge level first. Once we give the signal, I want Doctor Zelenka and Jacob to follow us. T, I'd like you and Major Davis to stay here and look after the cargo ship. Keep an open channel at all times, people,"

O'Neill walked to the rings in the cargo hold of the ship, accompanied by Major Carter, Jonas, Colonel Reynolds, Major Peterson, Lieutenant Ford and Sergeant Bosco. They all checked their weapons, P90s for SG-1 and M4 carbines for SG-3. O'Neill nodded to Davis, who operated the controls, and the seven Tau'ri disappeared from the scoutship.

--

SG-1 and -3 materialised in the ring-room nearest the bridge of the ship, and they immediately fanned out in groups through the corridors, checking the rooms, which seemed to be mainly luxurious quarters for the Goa'uld commanding the vessel, and storerooms. O'Neill, Carter and Jonas found a fully-stocked armoury, which had the usual zats, staff weapons and shock grenades, but also included two larger pedestal-mounted staff-cannons.

They took some zats and a couple of shock grenades each, with Jack looking longingly at the staff-cannons but realising their impracticality for their current mission.

Jonas took two zats, as he wasn't yet that comfortable with the P90, and zats had more flexibility with their ability to stun without causing injury. O'Neill watched him collect them, and wondered to himself why the Jaffa didn't use them as their primary weapons, they had much better ergonomics than the terrible staff weapons, which, as he'd told the rebel Jaffa not long previously, were weapons of terror, not war.

As they left the armoury, Lt. Ford radioed in, "Colonels, Bosco and I have found the bridge. No enemies sighted, and there appears to be no signs of damage,"

Reynolds and Peterson were the next to check in. "Reynolds here, Jack, we've located the main elevator shafts. They're sealed, which probably means there's vacuum behind them. We've placed trip sensors across the doorway to alert us to any company, just in case," he reported.

"Good idea Al, would you mind doing the same at the door to the ring room and the corridors leading to the bridge? I don't want any surprises today." Jack replied, "There are a pair of staff-cannons in the armoury about fifty metres from the rings if you need them," he added. His next message was to the cargo ship. "OK fellas, you're clear to ring over now, all appears to be well so far,"

"We're on our way, Jack," replied Jacob, as he and Doctor Zelenka strode over to the rings. "We'll send the equipment ahead of us,"

--

Ten minutes later, after the spacesuits and other supplies had been ringed over from the cargo ship, Selmak, Dr. Zelenka and Major Carter were gathered around the control stations, discussing the state of the ship. O'Neill was sampling the throne formerly occupied by whichever Goa'uld had owned the vessel, commenting that "It's much more comfortable than Cronus's throne on that other ship we stole,". Jonas was standing at the viewport, looking excited, while the Marines of SG-3 were keeping a close watch on the entrances. Carter turned to O'Neill.

"Sir, we've examined the logs of this ship, and we believe that this is the ship on which Anubis held Thor prisoner, which is ve-" Carter was cut off by a screeching, scratching, static-laden sound from the ship's PA system, "-ry interesting, but what is _that_?"

"It sounds like very distorted speech, Major, but I've found something else. The self-destruct system is active!" said Zelenka. O'Neill and SG-3 shared worried glances.

"What?" he exclaimed. Selmak interrupted him.

"As Doctor Zelenka has said, the self-destruct is active, but the countdown has frozen at fifteen minutes prior to detonation,"

"Can you guys shut it off?" Jack asked. Carter replied in the affirmative.

"Yes, sir, we think so, but we need to go down to the computer core, which is in one of the depressurised sections," she said apologetically.

"Alright, you and Zelenka can get suited up, but I want SG-3 to go with you," he ordered.

--

Fifteen minutes later, six figures in white spacesuits stepped slowly down the corridor towards the ring room, aided by O'Neill, Jonas and Jacob. Due to the extra bulk of the spacesuits, only two people could use the rings at once. Reynolds and Carter stepped onto the ring platform first. "We'll radio in when it's clear to send the next two," Carter said through the radio. O'Neill gave them the thumbs up, and activated the rings. After they had deactivated, those present who were not wearing spacesuits felt their ears pop as air rushed into the room to fill the cylinder of vacuum. Reynolds reported in over the radio, "We're in, the artificial gravity is inactive here, we're up by the ceiling! You can send Peterson and Ford now," he said. The two Marines duly stepped onto the ring platform, which O'Neill activated again. Ten seconds later, Peterson radioed in to say that he and Ford were clear of the rings. O'Neill repeated the procedure with Zelenka and Bosco and then turned to Jacob.

"I don't know about you Jacob, but it is kinda weird watching guys in spacesuits carryin' M4 carbines get teleported to the other end of an 'empty' alien spaceship that's rigged to blow up! I reckon we should be calling it the _Nirrti Celeste_ or somethin'!" Jacob merely raised an eyebrow very slightly and started walking back to the bridge with O'Neill in tow, and a very confused Jonas Quinn standing in the corridor for a second before giving chase. "What's the _Nirrti Celeste_?"

--

Apologies for the terrible pun at the end there...

Another chapter! Colonel Reynolds's first name is Albert, according to the Stargate Wiki so Jack, being Jack, calls him Al.

The SG-3 Ford _is_ Aiden Ford from SGA, he was a Marine, and had been part of an SG team prior to going to Atlantis, so why not include him in the story? The Atlantis expedition members would have been people who already had experience of the SGC, be it with SG teams, R&D or the like, so they're going to crop up at some point, and I reckon it helps the story gel. Also, I'm rubbish at making up character names.

I'm thinking of changing the title to "As According To Plan". Opinions?


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Unknown Ha'tak vessel, high Earth orbit**

The six Tau'ri had found that manoeuvring under microgravity conditions down alien corridors with few handholds was highly difficult, to say the least. Carter and SG-3 had had a limited amount of training in such things when they had borrowed a Tok'ra ship, and switched the artificial gravity off, resulting in everyone bouncing off the walls like kids, a string of cliches from O'Neill and stern looks from Teal'c. Zelenka, however, had no such training, and was uttering strings of Czech expletives whose English equivalents Carter could only guess at.

They had found that it was easiest to move along a corridor by 'standing' on the wall so it appeared as a shaft 'above' them, and jumping 'upward' gently. Carter was dreading what would happen if they had to use their weapons while in this state. They'd be just as likely to injure each other, let alone any enemies, she thought.

Happily they reached the computer core room without encountering anything untoward, and Carter and Zelenka set to work on the computer, interfacing it with their laptops. Thankfully Zelenka and Carter were well-versed in the procedure and they achieved their goal reasonably quickly. After this had been done, Zelenka was very quick off the mark in suggesting that they pressurise the room and activate it's gravity, as he was getting uncomfortable in the spacesuit. Carter agreed.

"Guys," she spoke to the others, "we're going to pressurise the room now,"

She tapped away at her computer, a task made difficult by the bulky gloves and view-distorting visor of the spacesuit. Eventually, air hissed into the room, and soon it was at a comfortable pressure and temperature. She signalled the others that the task had been completed, and she and Zelenka retracted their visors and removed their gloves to aid their work. There was one more thing to do, activate the gravity. Advising the others of her intentions, she activated the system at 0.1g. The six Tau'ri and their equipment drifted towards the floor slowly. Once everything had settled on the floor she increased the gravity strength to 0.5g.

"OK everyone, I've got the gravity set at half that of the Earth's surface," she said, "I'm not going to increase it more, because these suits would be too heavy to move around easily if I did," Receiving nods from all present, she turned to Radek. "OK Doctor, lets begin."

--

Half an hour later, Sam and Radek had made progress, which was no mean feat as it had not taken some of those present long to become _very_ bored, and not much longer for the two junior members, Ford and Bosco, to start playing ridiculous low-g games. Colonel Reynolds gave up telling them to knock it off after the tenth time. Truth be told, he almost wanted to join in, but his seniority meant that such things should be beneath him.

He settled for watching them with an ill-concealed grin as they performed the sorts of acrobatics that could've won them Olympic medals. Carter looked up at them, rolled her eyes and spoke to Reynolds.

"Sir, we've determined that the self-destruct is in fact dormant, almost as if there's someone holding the hands of the clock still-" Once more, she was interrupted by the distorted speech, or whatever it was, from the PA system. She paused for a second, looking thoughtful. "I think that that voice and the self-destruct may be linked. I'll attempt to clean up the speech on my laptop," she said. Several furious minutes of keyboard tapping and failed tests ensued until a familiar voice issued from Carter's computer.

"Major Carter, this is Thor. I have been using the internal communications system to synthesize my voice...I was held prisoner on this vessel. I am able to hear your speech but not respond..." the voice said. Major Carter had a puzzled frown on her face.

"Thor?" she asked tentatively.

"Greetings Major Carter," her computer said, "I am glad that you managed to board this vessel. You are the only people in this galaxy with the means to aid me," he said. "My mind was linked to this ship by Anubis, for the purposes of interrogation and access to Asgard technology. Before my body became comatose, I transferred my mind into the ship's computer," he explained.

"You brought it here because you needed our help to contact your people, only the crew activated the self-destruct before...you know," Carter said, making a slashing motion across her throat.

"Yes. I was unable to fully cancel the process, merely place it on hold. If you remove me from the computer, the countdown will continue and the ship will explode in approximately fifteen of your minutes," he said. Radek spoke next, slightly confused.

"Thor, how does the self-destruct achieve the er, destruction?"

"The reactor channels massive amounts of energy to the hyperdrive, without opening a hyperspace window," Thor said. "The resulting explosion is very powerful,"

"OK," said Carter. "Time to check in with the others," she got on the radio.

"Colonel, we've made some progress here," she said.

"Excellent, Carter, we'd started to wonder if you'd forgotten about us," replied O'Neill, "what news have you?"

"Well sir, we've decoded the garbled speech and it's Thor. He transferred his consciousness into the ship's computer and came here for our help. He's the one keeping the self-destruct on hold. If we remove him the sequence will start again, and unfortunately we have no way of stopping it," she reported. The colonel was silent for a few seconds, and Carter was about to ask him if he heard the message when he replied.

"I realise this might not be such a great idea, taking ideas from the Jack O'Neill book of fixin' computers, but why not just pull the plug?" Carter and Radek shared a thoughtful look which rapidly became sheepish as they realised that it was possible.

"Sir, you may have done it again," she said.

"I'm sorry!"

--

Ten minutes of computer-bashing and conversation with Thor later, Radek explained the plan to the others. Tapping a few keys, a green outline map appeared on his computer screen. "The hyperdrive is coupled to the main reactor in two locations," the screen changed to show them, "and a power loss at these couplings will allow us to disarm the self-destruct," he said. The Americans present exchanged raised eyebrows, "Then we have to vent the remaining energy out of the hyperdrive by opening a window, but not entering it," he finished. O'Neill, who had been listening in, contacted them over the radio.

"OK Doctor, good plan, just so long as I don't have to fight someone with a laser sword to give you guys time to escape later. I want you to split up, Carter with Reynolds and Peterson, Doctor Zelenka with Ford and Bosco. I'll contact the General and let him know how we're doing,"

**Stargate Command, Colorado, Earth**

Hammond descended the stairs into the control room, having been called by Sergeant Harriman. Said sergeant pointed him to the correct microphone.

"Colonel O'Neill, this is Hammond. What have you found up there?"

"Well sir, the ship is deserted, nobody on board except us, so far as we can tell. There have been a couple of surprises, mainly that the self-destruct is active, but Carter and Doctor Zelenka are working on that now. The other surprise is that Thor is in the computer. Don't ask me how, but he brought it here while keeping the self-destruct on hold. Says he can help us, but he also says that he'd like you to contact the Ida galaxy and update the Asgard on what he's been up to, sir," O'Neill reported.

"Thank you, Colonel, I'll send SG-7 to K'Tau to relay the message. What is the assessment of the Goa'uld ship's suitability for being salvaged?"

"Major Davis, Selmak and I have been chatting around the proverbial water-cooler about that sir, and once Carter and Zelenka have done their work, we should have a fully-functional ship up here. Major Davis suggests that we find someplace to land and let the geeks crawl over it. We haven't got anywhere suitable in mind yet though, sir." he said.

"Very well, Colonel, we'll get thinking down here. Hammond out," the General said, and released the microphone. Leaving the control room, an idea started forming in his mind from memories of his long years of service. Arriving in his office, he opened his laptop and connected to the internet. It didn't take long for him to realise that his idea was workable, but would require a lot of political wrangling. He reached for the red phone. "This is General Hammond, I need to speak with the President immediately," he said into the reciever. Being the commanding officer of the world's most secret base had it's advantages, as it took him only a few minutes to get through.

"General Hammond, good to hear from you. What news do you bring of SG-1's endeavours?" the instantly recognizable voice said.

"Well Mister President, they are in the process of securing the ship and ensuring no hostiles are aboard. Major Carter, along with Doctor Zelenka of Area 51 are disengaging the ship's self-destruct systems as we speak. Colonel O'Neill, Major Davis and Selmak of the Tok'ra suggest landing the ship in order to allow our scientists to study it in greater detail, but there is a problem with that plan, sir," he said.

"I suppose that could be the fact that there are six billion people on this planet, and hiding a spaceship the size of several city blocks would be difficult," commented the president. "No doubt you have an idea to help with that, General?" he asked.

"Indeed I do, sir, but the trouble is, there could be political problems," the General explained. "The place I have in mind is Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. If we land the ship under cover of darkness in the lagoon it can be studied more easily, especially if we have the Army Corps of Engineers build a dome over it. The trouble is that we don't own it, the British RAF do. However, the location is excellent for launching into orbit in an emergency, as it's very close to the equator and the nearest land eastward of the islands is Indonesia," he explained. The president seemed convinced by the plan.

"I like that idea, George, but I'll hold off calling London until we hear back from Colonel O'Neill and his people," he said.

"Thank you sir," Hammond said before putting the phone down. He grabbed a folder and started filling out the inevitable paperwork that would result from the situation.

--

One more chapter done!

Hammond's suggestion about Diego Garcia would make a little more sense accompanied by a very brief description of orbital mechanics, so here goes. In order to achieve orbit, the craft must accelerate horizontally as well as vertically. The task is make easier if one uses the rotation of the earth to help, so launches are often aimed to the east, over water or uninhabited areas, and also as near as possible to the equator, where the velocity of the earth's surface is greater. We can see that from Nasa, who launch from Florida and Esa, who launch from French Guiana.

Science lesson over, what do you think? It's all gone rather smoothly for SG-1 and company so far, but there may be a spanner in the works in the next chapter!

Reviews appreciated as always.


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: Bunnylass, yes, the UK will eventually become involved, but they won't be the last. International participation will be a little wider here than in the series.

Chapter 5

**Ha'tak vessel, Earth orbit**

The team at the computer core had just finished suiting up in preparation for leaving the room. Carter had connected her laptop to a spare radio so they could talk with Thor while in the vacuum of the corridors, but mostly so that he could guide the teams to their objectives. After the whole team had signalled that they were fully suited up, she tapped a few controls and opened the door a fraction. It took several minutes for the room to completely depressurise.

In their earlier radio chat, O'Neill had refused to pressurize the remaining airless areas of the ship, as he wanted to keep the bridge isolated from the rest of the ship, and any enemies that may still be on board. He had, however, agreed to activate the artificial gravity at 0.5g to help the team move more easily, a move that Doctor Zelenka appreciated very much. Jacob was sweeping the areas that did have life-support for life-signs using the internal sensors, but so far he had not turned up any. Jonas had explored the bridge deck thoroughly, and much to O'Neill's amazement, had found the Goa'uld equivalent of a refrigerator. One munch on the pasty-like object he found within taught him the error of his ways, as his eyes widened and he discreetly disposed of it in what _looked_ like a waste chute. O'Neill's musings were interrupted by Carter on the radio, signalling her team's arrival at a locked door. Selmak tried opening it, with no success, but Thor, being the avatar of the ship, he managed to succeed. A similar event happened as Zelenka's group found another locked door, and with the aid of the Supreme Commander, they effected entry as well.

--

Doctor Radek Zelenka looked with relief at the sensor he held in his hand, which showed viable life support in their corridor. "Gentlemen," he said to Ford and Bosco, "there is atmosphere in here. We can take these damned suits off now, thank God!"

Five minutes later, they had removed their spacesuits and were ready to continue towards their objective, the more distant of the hyperdrive power couplings. Ford took Zelenka aside and took out a Browning Hi-Power pistol. The scientist looked confused. "I don't like guns at all, Aiden, and I don't know how to use one," he said. Ford tried to encourage him a little.

"Doc, it's a piece of cake, you load a round like this," he said, demonstrating each action, "take the safety off, point it at the bad guy and pull the trigger. If you need to reload, eject the mag," he indicated the magazine release, "and load another. Then you have to load the first round of the new magazine before firing," he said, handing the weapon to the Czech. "Got it?" he received an uncertain nod. "Good. Show me," he said. It took Zelenka a couple of tries but he managed it. "Good Doc, it's just as a precaution so we know you can defend yourself. The chances are it won't be needed,"

"I hope so, Aiden," Zelenka replied. The trio set off down the corridor.

Carter, Reynolds and Peterson had also removed their suits and hidden them in a side room before setting off towards their power coupling. They were unaware that they had tripped a sensor, but sweeping their route for any hostiles under the guidance of Thor they made it to a nondescript wall panel, which Thor told them to remove. Doing so, Carter found a series of crystals, a computer display, some levers and behind a small window, a large rod running from top to bottom. Carter guessed that that was the conduit. Setting to work, she started on the computer screen. She could see that this could take a while, so she advised her companions to secure their location. It took several minutes, but eventually, having re-ordered some of the crystals and pulled one of the levers, the rod split in two, with the lower half dropping out of sight. Excellent, she thought.

"Colonel Reynolds, I've finished," she reported as she closed up the panel.

"Excellent, Major. Let's go and find Doctor Zelenka's group," the colonel ordered.

--

Zelenka had arrived at his coupling just as Sam was finishing at hers. It took him a similar amount of time to complete the process, and he was rewarded with a satisfying series of clunks as the coupling disengaged. As he was replacing the panel on the wall, Major Carter's group joined them, and once he had finished, they started back to the bridge.

After a minute or so Thor's voice came over the radio. "Colonel Reynolds, Major Carter, I am detecting lifesigns near your position. They are closing rapidly," he said urgently. Reynolds and Carter exchanged nods and the group spread out into defensive positions. Less than ten seconds later, a group of Jaffa appeared in their corridor and were met with a barrage of weapons fire. The Jaffa attack was relentless, but the limitations of Jaffa tactics and weaponry meant that soon ten Jaffa lay dead in the corridor.

Bosco turned to check his rear and came face-to face with a very large katana-wielding Jaffa, who was bearing a silver version of the Anubis tattoo. Zelenka also turned as the Jaffa swung at Bosco, severely injuring his left arm and striking his body armour. Bosco fell with a cry, and once he had hit the floor, the Jaffa was struck by sustained pistol fire. After the full magazine had been emptied and the Jaffa had fallen, Zelenka looked at the empty gun in his hand with a steely, cold look in his eyes. He threw the weapon back to Ford, who along with the rest of the group was looking at the scientist with varying expressions of incredulity, and said, "I never want to use one of those things again," before leading the group to the nearest set of rings. Carter tried to raise O'Neill on the radio but recieved no response.

--

O'Neill had just heard Thor's warning over the radio when the trip sensors Reynolds had placed at the rings activated. He ordered Jonas and Jacob to cover the exit and moved slowly towards the door, only to be thrown to the ground by a large Jaffa. He lay there, out cold. Jonas drew his zats and started firing both in turn, one after the other at the Jaffa as some of their number entered the room.

Jacob was circling around the other side, also firing his zat, but was struck in the shoulder by a staff blast and fell to the floor. Jonas was doing the best he could now by himself, and thankfully his barrage of zat fire was serving his purposes well, but alas it was not enough, as he too was knocked to the ground with a vicious back-hand from the last Jaffa, who advanced on him with a vengeful look on his face.

"Well this day was going quite well, had to end sometime I suppo-" he was cut off by the Jaffa,

"Silence! Who are you, pitiful Tau'ri, to try and steal one of the proud warships of the all-powerful god Anubis?" he roared. He took a look at Jonas, recognising the SG-1 symbol on his shoulder. Hauling Jonas to his feet he said, "You are with the shol'va, Teal'c! Where is he? I wish to fulfil my duty to my gods and strike him down, as per our sacred du-" he was cut off in mid-flow by a deep voice at the doorway.

"The one you call the shol'va is here, servant of Anubis, and if the price of our freedom involves my being called a traitor to false gods, then so be it!" Teal'c was standing in the doorway, an expression of pure fury on his face as he faced down his opponent. O'Neill's radio started chattering, but Teal'c ignored it. "I give you one opportunity to renounce the Goa'uld as false gods and join your free brothers and sisters! If you do not accept then you will die by my hand," he intoned. He wasn't expecting the Jaffa to accept, but it would've been dishonourable not to at least offer him the chance.

His suspicions were proved accurate when the Jaffa spat on the floor and charged him with his staff weapon, intent on striking the former First Prime down. With movements borne from nearly a century of martial instruction and training, Teal'c dropped to his knees as his opponent reached him, grabbing the end of his staff weapon and hurling his enemy to the floor with ease. Teal'c rose, spinning the weapon round in his hands to point at the Jaffa, who glared back.

"You have one last opportunity to join me," Teal'c growled.

When the glare persisted, Teal'c merely nodded, looking grave. "So be it," he said, and fired the weapon.

Turning from the dead Jaffa, he surveyed the room. Colonel O'Neill and Jacob Carter were unconscious, with the Tok'ra having suffered injuries from a staff-weapon. Jonas Quinn was dazed and barely conscious. Moving to the control station, which had remained mercifully undamaged by the weapons fire, he checked for more lifesigns in the vicinity. Seeing six lifesigns close at hand, he strode to the door.

"Identify yourselves," he shouted down the corridor in his customary deep voice, "If you approach without first disclosing your identities, you will be fired upon!"

He was somewhat surprised when a female voice rang out down the corridor, one he recognised instantly.

"Teal'c, it's Sam! We have a wounded man with us!" Sam shouted back, and immediately she rounded the corner followed by Zelenka and SG-3. Bosco was holding his arm in a makeshift sling.

When Carter arrived on the bridge and saw the mess she was incredulous.

"Teal'c, what the hell happened here?" she asked, going to check on her team-mates and father.

"I am unsure, Major Carter. Major Davis and I were attacked by a group of enemy Jaffa who gained entry to the ship by means of the ring transporter. Fortunately, Major Davis was able to subdue three of them with zat'nik'tel fire before himself being struck and rendered unconscious, leaving three others, whom I quickly eliminated." explained Teal'c."I then used the ring transporter to board this vessel in the hope of aiding you against any more enemies." he finished.

Colonel Reynolds was moving to help Jacob, while Ford moved towards Jonas.

"Wow. Well, it looks like we were all attacked. Bosco was attacked by a sword-wielding Jaffa whose tattoo was like that of a First Prime, only silver," Carter explained.

"It is likely that Private Bosco's attacker was a member of Anubis' Prime Guards, elite Jaffa second only in rank to the First Prime," Teal'c offered by way of explanation.

Their attention was diverted by a groan from near the door. "Oy! What a headache!" Jack said, sitting up slowly. He surveyed the scene. "Carter, what's going on?" he asked, dazed.

"Well, sir, we were kinda hoping you could tell us," the Major replied.

"We got bounced by a load of Jaffa, I got knocked on the head. That's as far as my participation went," he replied. Carter nodded and moved towards her father, who was also starting to stir.

"Hey, Sam, what happened?" he asked slowly, trying to sit up, but unable to due to the pain in his shoulder.

"You took a blast in the shoulder, Dad, just lie still and let Selmak work on it," Sam said softly.

By this time Jonas was feeling more lively.

"Well that was interesting," he said with a small smile. O'Neill looked at him. "You didn't go all action hero and start dual-wielding zats, did ya?" Jonas could only grin at him.

"Nice going, buddy!" O'Neill said, with no small measure of respect in his voice.

They were interrupted by the trilling of their radios.

"Teal'c, Colonel O'Neill, this is Major Davis, please respond," the voice said weakly.

"Major Davis, this is Teal'c. Our vessel was attacked by Jaffa and you were struck by zat'nik'tel fire. I placed you in your current location and went to the aid of the others," Teal'c explained.

"Great. So, you coming back over here, Teal'c?" Davis asked.

"Give us a moment Major, we'll be right with ya," O'Neill replied. Changing frequencies on his radio, O'Neill called Thor.

"Thor, buddy! Can you depressurize the whole ship apart from the bridge deck for me? I don't want any more company," he said.

"One moment," Thor replied. Ten seconds later, he called back. "It is done. I believe now would be a good time to allow the self-destruct countdown to run it's course," he said. O'Neill replied in the affirmative and a loud voice filled the ship, speaking in Goa'uld, of course. O'Neill glanced at Teal'c, who looked uncomfortable.

"It is an audio countdown, O'Neill, informing us that we have fifteen minutes until self-destruct occurs," the big Jaffa explained. "Even though Major Carter and Doctor Zelenka have taken steps to avert the ship's destruction, it is very much against my instincts to remain here," O'Neill couldn't argue with that, and settled down to wait.

--

The fifteen minutes had been _very_ uncomfortable for those on the bridge, but as intended, when the countdown reached zero, nothing happened. O'Neill opened his eyes to see a faint blue cloud appear briefly outside the window, the sign that the hyperdrive had been discharged and all was well.

"Well kids, looks like we bagged ourselves a mothership!" he said triumphantly.

--

Well, they've finally got the thing secured! Now starts the process of R&D...many sleepless nights on the horizon for the scientists at Area 51 and Cheyenne Mountain!

Reviews appreciated, as always.


	7. Chapter 6

A/N: For the purposes of this story, President Clinton is Hayes' predecessor, perhaps he was elected 4 years later in SG-verse! IRL, William Hague resigned in 2001, but I've kept him on here.

--

**Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street, London, Earth, 23 February 2003**

The Prime Minister entered his office and collapsed into his chair. Tony Blair had had a bad afternoon in the House of Commons, where he'd been given a hard time in his latest debates on public service reform with his Conservative opposite number, William Hague. Blair silently damned the voracious Yorkshireman and his oratory skills, wishing that he'd had the good grace to resign in 2001 after he'd lost the last elections. After that low point, Hague had taken some time to rethink and consolidate his party and his strategy, and now the Conservatives were more popular than Blair was expecting them to be. Still, it kept him and the Government on their toes.

He started leafing through his notes for the Agriculture Select Committee meeting later that day. The farmers wanted to know how the latest EU regulations would affect their set-aside payments, he noticed. He scribbled a notation in the margin and placed the file on his desk.

The Prime Minister was stretching in his chair and loosening his tie when his phone rang. It was his secretary, Rebecca Slater.

"Prime Minister, you have a call from President Clinton on line two," she said.

"Thanks, Becky," Blair said. What did Bill want now? Maybe it had something to do with that report that crossed his desk the other day about funny readings at the radar site in Yorkshire or somesuch. He punched the flashing button on his phone.

"Blair here," he said tiredly. Clinton's response was fresh and genial, probably because of the time difference. Damn the time difference, Blair thought.

"Greetings, Prime Minister! Say, you wouldn't happen to have a bit of spare time on your hands? You don't? Great. Now, do you remember that business a couple of days ago with the radar stations? Yes, that one. Anyway, I've got a bit of a tale to tell you about that, and oddly enough, it starts in the 1920s," Clinton said.

--

Two hours later, Blair had completely forgotten about the Agriculture Select Committee meeting, and was rapturously listening to the US president tell him about alien interstellar transportation devices, evil aliens posing as gods and one of their spaceships being captured.

The president had just asked him if the US Air Force could land their captured alien ship on Diego Garcia, an important tri-service base in the Indian Ocean. He was intrigued, but also he didn't want to let the Americans walk all over him, not like the ongoing Afghanistan business. He was glad that Clinton hadn't been pushed into invading Iraq. Blair had seen some of the 'intelligence' on WMDs and it was proved fairly rapidly to be faulty.

He spoke, choosing his words rather carefully, as was his way.

"Well, Mr President, we'd like to be of some help to this grand cosmic plan of yours, but we would expect something in return. How about I bring our Washington embassy staff up to speed on this, and we can come to some sort of arrangement over your use of Diego Garcia?" he suggested. He listened to the president's reply. "Excellent. I'll have the Ambassador and his staff waiting," he said.

--

**Ha'tak vessel, Earth orbit, the same time**

The ship now had swarms of scientists and engineers aboard, trying to decipher the ship's secrets, but SG-1 weren't interested in that. They were heading for the hangar bay at the urging of Major Davis, as allegedly there was something there that they 'simply had to see'. Stepping out of the elevator, they turned a corner and immediately understood what Davis had meant.

The hangar on a ha'tak occupied the lower decks of the central pyramid of the vessel, and it was _huge_. The room that SG-1 were now in was a vast triangle, nearly 300 metres long on each side. But it wasn't the hangar itself that made SG-1 pause, it was the contents. Rows of Al'kesh stretched away in three directions from the central spine of the room, where SG-1 were. Carter counted 12 of the mid-range bombers, waiting to be launched through doors in the floor of the room. Several squadrons of gliders hung in racks from the ceiling, to be launched through small apertures in the walls. Tel'taks were scattered throughout the room, seemingly at random.

"Holy...buckets," O'Neill said, almost disbelievingly. "We scored the jackpot here, didn't we!" His attention turned to the largest ships in the hangar, 3 in total, one in each corner of the room. They were slightly taller than Al'kesh. O'Neill had never seen such ships before. "T, what are _those_?" he asked.

"I believe that they are transport vessels, designed to ferry large numbers of warriors to and from the planet below. Though unarmed, they are more heavily shielded than Al'kesh," he said.

"Sweet," said Jack, who had started to wander along the gantry towards the nearest Al'kesh.

The team followed, eventually entering the ship and finding Major Davis on board, who looked like a kid at Christmas who'd just won the lottery.

Carter and Jonas immediately started to play with the computers, while Teal'c and O'Neill started discussing something with Davis, more specifically, what should their new mothership be called?

There was serious consideration being given to _Mjolnir_, as a nod to Thor, who had been returned to his people via some computer crystals the day before. Also on the table were _Iapetus_ and _Atlas_, after the father and brother of Prometheus. Jack would've preferred _Enterprise_, but for now _Mjolnir_ was the favourite among the brass. Their argument was interrupted by a 'Wow!' from Carter.

"Sir, I think that this ship has been equipped with Asgard transporter systems!" she said with surprise evident in her voice. She didn't get a chance to continue, though, as they received a radio call from Colonel Emerson, who had been given command of the ship.

"SG-1, you're needed back at Stargate Command urgently. Orders from General Hammond," he said. "Major Davis, you're also needed at the Pentagon,"

"We got ya, Colonel. You might want to send some guys down to the hangar bay at some point, there's some interesting stuff down here," O'Neill said. He turned to Carter.

"Carter, can we use the beam on this thing?" he asked.

"Sorry, sir, but while this ship does have the beaming technology, it doesn't have the sensor resolution to be able to beam back to earth from this distance," she said.

"Shame," Jack said, "we'll have to teleport back the less classy way," he replied and started towards a ring platform.

--

**Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, Earth**

SG-1 stepped off of the ring platform, and out of the cargo ship that had been covered with camouflage netting, liberal amounts of vegetation, and a few licks of paint once it had landed on Cheyenne Mountain. Hitching a ride on a passing truck, they passed through the tunnel, where the dismounted in order to move through the security checkpoints and down the lifts to the SGC.

When they arrived at the briefing room they encountered a surprise in the form of Thor, recently restored to his full physical self. O'Neill was of course, the first to jump in with a quip.

"Thor! Nice to see you. How's the, er, 'new body' working out?"

"I am well, O'Neill. My ability to use this new body is as a result of your courageous actions, and we are once more in your debt," he said in his traditional laconic manner.

"That's very kind of you to say, Thor," Hammond said as they all took seats, including Thor. "What news do you bring us?" asked the General.

"General Hammond, as a sign of the Asgard's thanks, I have been authorised to offer you what you might refer to as a 'helping hand' with some of your technological research and development efforts." he said. "However, I am not yet permitted to provide any actual Asgard technology, only aid you with understanding that which you already have,"

"Major, how would you like working with Thor for a while, provided it doesn't clash with any of SG-1's missions?" the General asked. Sam's enthusiasm was shining from her eyes as she answered in the affirmative.

"Are you kidding, sir? I'd love to!" she beamed. This was going to be great fun, she thought!

--

**British Embassy, Washington D.C, Earth, a few hours later**

The British ambassador to the United States, Sir John Eastwood, was eating a quiet lunch in his office when his phone rang. Quickly finishing his mouthful, he picked up the phone. "Eastwood here," he said, expecting it to be his secretary.

The voice that replied was definitely not the one he was expecting.

"Sir John, I hope I haven't caught you at a bad time," the Prime Minister said amiably. "Your defence attaché should be receiving a visitor from the Pentagon in about ten minutes. The visitor is going to brief the two of you on a secret program in Colorado Springs, run by the US Air Force, called the Stargate program. In short, they want to use Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to hide a rather large and classified object, an alien warship to be precise" Blair said. Eastwood absorbed the news well. He'd seen his fair share of madness in his diplomatic career.

"Yes, Prime Minister. I assume you're aiming to get some benefits for UK plc out of this?" he queried.

"Indeed, Sir John. As well as the use of the base, I am going to allow you to offer British resources and manpower to the Stargate program, but in return, we wish to become partners in it's operation," the Prime Minister said. "I believe that the officer from the Pentagon will also be acting as the US negotiator, Sir John. Good luck!" Blair said.

"Thank you, Prime Minister. I shall go and inform Lt. Commander Sykes of our appointment immediately," said Sir John, and concluded the conversation.

--

Lt. Commander David Sykes of the Royal Navy, the British defence attaché in Washington, had just been visited by the Ambassador.

Sir John had apparently had been informed of an imminent top-secret briefing by a Pentagon officer, relating to something called the 'Stargate' program.

He was mentally puzzling over what it could be when one of the secretaries stuck his head through the door, informing them of their visitor.

"Send him in," the Ambassador said.

A few seconds later, a USAF major in full dress blues stepped through the ornate door, with his hat tucked neatly under one arm, and carrying a laptop case in the other hand.

Discreetly, both Sykes and the Ambassador sized him up. He looked to be in either his late thirties or early forties, with a receding hairline, but his eyes glimmered with intelligence and he had a air of politeness around him. The two British officials took a liking to him almost immediately.

"Ambassador sir, Lieutenant Commander, thank you for seeing me, I am Major Paul Davis," he said pleasantly.

"It's our pleasure, Major Davis." Sir John said affably. "I understand you wish to tell us about a rather secret project of yours," he said. "Please, take a seat,"

"Thank you Mr Ambassador," Davis said, and did so. He took his computer out of his bag, placing it on the table so that the British officials could see the screen clearly. He pressed a few buttons and a diagram of a ring appeared.

Sir John could see that it had nine vaguely triangular shapes on it's face, beneath which there were a series of pictographs. Davis cleared his throat softly, and began to speak.

"Gentlemen, this is a diagram of an object discovered in the 1920s by a Doctor Langford, buried in the Giza Plateau, an object which we now know to be of extraterrestrial origin," he said.

Both British bureaucrats were outwardly calm, with Sykes sporting a raised eyebrow. He pressed on. "It was shipped to the United States in 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War. It was forgotten until 1945, when a research project was started in order to determine it's purpose, and if it could be a weapon of some description. During the project, it was believed that one of the team members was lost in an accident, and the project was shelved until the 1990s, when the object was moved to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado Springs.

The team made little progress in discovering the function of the object at first, but a newcomer to the project, Doctor Daniel Jackson, managed to accurately translate the carvings found with the object, which was called a _chappa'ai_ by the Ancient Egyptians, into English. We found that the object was a device, an alien device, capable of instantly transporting matter and energy across the galaxy. We call it a Stargate," Davis said.

"In 1996, a reconnaissance mission was sent through the Stargate to a planet we now know as Abydos. This mission, led by Colonel Jack O'Neill, encountered humans on Abydos whose ancestors had been taken from Ancient Egypt, for use as slave labour in a mining operation,"

"Who kidnapped these humans, Major Davis?" Sykes asked.

"The Abydonians were abducted by a powerful alien, who called himself Ra. While O'Neill's team was on Abydos, Ra arrived and landed in an enormous pyramid-shaped spacecraft."

"After a period of fighting between Ra's troops and O'Neill's team, aided by the Abydonians, Ra was killed when his ship was destroyed by a nuclear weapon," Davis slid copies of the Abydos mission report across the table, "and after Colonel O'Neill's return to Earth, the Stargate lay dormant for a year, mainly because we thought that it could only allow travel between Earth and Abydos. We were proved wrong when the Stargate activated about a year later, and another Goa'uld, Apophis, invaded the facility with several of his warriors, known as 'Jaffa', who killed several airmen and kidnapped a female sergeant before retreating back through the gate."

"General Hammond, the new base commander, sent O'Neill and company back to Abydos to investigate. While the team was on Abydos, Apophis attacked, killing several Abydonians and US personnel. Fortunately, one of the men was later able to remember the symbols Apophis dialled. General Hammond ordered O'Neill's team, designated SG-1 and consisting of the colonel, Captain Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson, who had been living on Abydos since the original mission, to go to the co-ordinates and investigate, along with Major Kawalsky's team, SG-2. To cut an already long story short, SG-1 and 2 were able to rescue a large number of Apophis' prisoners, and they also received a defector, Apophis' former First Prime, Teal'c. He joined SG-1, and has become one of our strongest allies."

"Ever since, four-man teams have been exploring the gate system, trying to secure allies and advanced technology to help us in our fight against the Goa'uld System Lords," he said.

Eastwood and Sykes were not quite open-mouthed, but there were raised eyebrows all round. The ambassador responded cautiously.

"Well, Major, that's quite a story. I assume that the two large flashes in the sky several years ago and that 'meteor' that crashed into the Pacific Ocean, causing a Russian submarine to be lost have something to do with this," he said. Receiving a nod, he continued. "Now, what of these allies you've made, and the technology you've obtained?" he asked.

Major Davis could see that this was going to be quite a story. "Well, Mr. Ambassador, we've made quite a few friends out there, but we have two particularly important allies,"

The Major launched into a description of the Tok'ra and Asgard, detailing each race, their technology, and their first contacts with Earth. The Ambassador was highly impressed.

"I daresay that the Scandinavians will be awfully pleased. Anyway Major, now that Lt. Cdr. Sykes and I have some context of the situation, what can Her Majesty's Government do for you?" he asked, with an amiable smile on his lips.

--

Apologies for the long and slightly boring exposition!

Reviews and comments appreciated as always.


	8. Chapter 7

A/N: andrewjameswilliams: Thanks for the review! This story does have quite a bit of scope, I've got ideas enough to last way beyond the end of series 10! The international participation I think is common sense, and here it's going to be done in a less half-hearted way than in the show. I haven't really thought about the Kinsey/rogue NID/Trust element a huge amount. Ideas are still forming, but you are right, Kinsey will have a harder time here, and probably some good old Kinsey/Jack verbal sparring to boot!

--

Chapter 7

**Stargate Command, Earth, 1st March 2003**

Major Samantha Carter was almost sure she was dreaming. She was taking advantage of the downtime that SG-1 had after their mission to the Goa'uld-infested town in the best way she could think of, collaborating in her research with two of the brightest beings she had ever met. One was Jonas, with his photographic memory, and the other was Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet.

The only thing wrong at the moment was the absence of a certain colonel, who was still with the Tok'ra following their trip to Antarctica. She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, and focused on what she was doing.

They were currently working on ways of stabilising the naquadria reactor technology used on the F-302, and in a larger form on the nearly-completed X-303 test-bed ship. The failure of the F-302's hyperspace technology had been a serious blow to Sam, who had taken it quite personally. Unsurprisingly, she had asked Thor for his input soon after his offer to aid her research.

What did surprise her, however, was Thor's opinion of the technology. She had expected him to regard it as being easy, of being 'old' technology, the same way she thought of steam locomotives or early aircraft. She was proved wrong when Thor first saw the designs for the F-302.

He had complimented Carter and the team that had developed it, saying that to his knowledge, no other races had developed hyperspace window generators that had been miniaturised to such a degree.

He did have one or two things to say about the naquadria reactor system though.

"Major Carter, I believe that you have managed to overcome this problem with your larger reactor on the X-303 by using a type of capacitor to even out the energy flow. Why have you not done so with this smaller version?" he queried.

"We have been researching the possibility ever since the test flights of the X-302, but we've been unable to make a capacitor that is strong enough to handle the power outputs and physical stresses, yet at the same time be small enough to be usable in the limited space available on the F-302," Carter said. "that's one of the only obstacles we have, really,"

"I believe that I can offer some assistance on this subject Major," Thor said, "A crystal-based system will be extremely durable, yet be compact enough for the space available,"

"Again, the guys at Area 51 had toyed with the idea, but were unable to make crystals like that-" she started, but was cut off by Hammond calling her to the briefing room.

"I'll leave you two to it," she said and hurried out of the lab.

--

General Hammond was talking with Major Davis and an unfamiliarly uniformed man in his office when Carter arrived in the briefing room. The general noted her arrival and guided his companions into the large room.

"Major Carter, I'd like you to meet Lieutenant Commander David Sykes of the Royal Navy." Hammond said as the two shook hands. "Lt. Cdr. Sykes is the British military attaché in Washington, and has been negotiating with Major Davis for use of their base at Diego Garcia, and I believe that they've reached an agreement,"

The group took their seats at the table and Major Davis explained the terms.

"The British have allowed us to land the _Mjolnir_ at Diego Garcia, and in return, the UK becomes an equal partner in the Stargate program along with us and Russia. This entails the sharing of all technologies relating to and gathered as a result of the Stargate, including the designs for the F-302, the X-303 and it's successor, the as-yet undesigned X-304. The UK will supply four SG teams worth of personnel, drawn from the SAS, SBS and Royal Marines. RAF and Fleet Air Arm pilots will be undergoing training on F-302s in Nevada. The UK will also be setting up a research project at the AWRE facility in Aldermaston, specialising in naquadah reactor technology and materials research, particularly relating to trinium and naquadah. The British will also be sending over physicists, engineers, archaeologists and linguists to both the SGC and Area 51 to augment the capabilities of both facilities," he said.

Lt. Cdr. Sykes continued the speech.

"We'll be setting up manufacturing facilities across the British Isles, initially for the production of advanced parts for the various ship-building programs you have, but eventually we'll start building complete ships, which will be operated by a new unit within the Royal Navy, the Space Operations Directorate. Also, and this is the part that will probably affect you most, Major, we shall be adding one of our personnel to SG-1," the British officer said. Carter was slightly bemused.

"Well sirs, that's good news. It's always good to have new people join the program, but I can't imagine Colonel O'Neill being terribly pleased when he gets back," she said diplomatically. Sykes was unconcerned.

"Major, the MOD has already picked our man for your team, and he's extremely capable. He's a sergeant in the 22nd Special Air Service regiment. Never met the man myself, but apparently he's fairly easy-going, so he should get on well with O'Neill," he said. Hammond was the next to speak.

"This is already a done deal, Major. Teal'c is taking a cargo ship to England right now to pick up your new man, and US and British Army engineers are on their way to Diego Garcia to prepare a landing site for the _Mjolnir_," he said.

"That's good sir, I certainly don't have any problems with the arrangement," she said. "It sounds very exciting, but with your permission, I'd like to go back to my work now sir, Thor, Jonas and I are near a breakthrough,"

"Very well, you are dismissed Major," the general ordered.

--

**Headquarters of 22 SAS, near Hereford, United Kingdom, Earth**

Sergeant James McKenzie, inevitably known as 'Mac' to his mates, was having an odd few days, even by the standards of the SAS. Yesterday morning, he had been summoned to the CO's office and handed a laptop computer.

His orders were to read and inwardly digest the information it contained, in preparation for a new assignment in the US. He had been ordered to tell no-one about his mission, and when he read the first file on the computer he doubted if anyone would've actually believed him if he had. Still, orders were orders, and he spent the next twenty-four hours studying the Stargate program, which apparently, Britain was now an active part of. Having studied the information, he was distinctly unimpressed by the military abilities of the Goa'uld.

Take away their space power, he thought, and they'd be easy pickings for the British Armed Forces acting by themselves, never mind the full power of the US military. McKenzie wondered what their reaction to a battalion of Challenger 2 tanks arriving through the Stargate would be. Highly amusing, he thought.

McKenzie was studying the Goa'uld System Lords once more when his phone rang. It was his CO, ordering him to report to the ready room with his luggage (not much) and his weapons and equipment (very heavy).

McKenzie did so, shifting his bulky cargo with ease. He arrived in the ready room to see his CO talking with a dark-skinned man who had a thick woolly hat on his head. The visitor turned round and introduced himself.

"Greetings, Sergeant McKenzie. My name is Murray, and it is my duty to transport you to the United States, where you will be commencing your new assignment." he said in a deep, authoritative voice. McKenzie shook his hand. Murray's grip was firm and steady. Like McKenzie, this man was a warrior. His CO bid him farewell, and Murray led McKenzie out of the building in the direction of the helipad. McKenzie was about to ask Murray how they were travelling, when suddenly the man shouted in his deep voice,

"Tel'tak, kree!"

About a second after he had said the words, a doorway appeared out of nowhere.

"This will be our mode of transportation, Sergeant McKenzie," Murray said, and led Mac into the cargo ship. Once the doors had closed and Mac had relieved himself of his baggage, he took a seat alongside Murray, who was making preparations for take-off.

"Well, I know your real name isn't Murray, that's for sure. I suppose 'Teal'c' sounds a bit too alien for use in public?" Mac asked. Teal'c nodded, removing his hat.

"Indeed, Sergeant, you are quite correct. Your commanding officer advised me that you would be a difficult man to deceive, and his assessment was proved to be accurate," he said.

"Only too happy to oblige, Teal'c. I am, however, fairly bursting with questions about the SGC and the galaxy, would you mind enlightening me? The files just aren't the same," Mac said, taking a liking to the big Jaffa. He could probably make a lot of his mates back in Hereford look quite shabby on the ranges and in the gym, he thought.

--

**Unknown Planet**

O'Neill was running through some woods, only it wasn't him doing the running. That _damned _Tok'ra had hitched a ride in his body to do God knows what, and all he'd managed to do was get chased by a bunch of Jaffa. O'Neill had given up his futile mental tirade against the snake when that had happened, but he had very little faith in the Tok'ra's ability to escape.

His lack of faith was shown to be completely justified when he was cornered as the snake tried to dial the gate.

Suddenly, he was back in control of his body, as the snake left him, slithering across the mud to what Jack hoped would be a slow, painful death. Jack assessed his situation, briefly considering taking on the Jaffa bare-handed but he was thrown to the ground by a vicious blow from one of his pursuers, rendering him unconscious and unable to defend himself.

--

**Tel'tak cargo vessel, Earth**

The hour-long flight from Hereford to Colorado was proving to be a highly enlightening one indeed for McKenzie. He and Teal'c had conversed at length, exchanging information about their different cultures and martial traditions. The two were becoming fast friends. Each had expressed deep admiration for the other's cause, with Teal'c being particularly impressed with the story of Lt. Stirling and the SAS's activities in north Africa during the Second World War. McKenzie had expressed his awe at the magnitude of the task that Teal'c had set for himself, Bra'tac and Rya'c, and he pledged to help them out however he could.

The cargo ship had landed in a forest clearing on Cheyenne Mountain. Teal'c and McKenzie made their way inside the mountain and down to the SGC, a task made more difficult by thick snow and darkness, but it was a task that the two warriors handled with ease.

General Hammond was signing off a mission report filed by SG-6 when Teal'c knocked on the door, notifying him of Sergeant McKenzie's arrival. Said sergeant entered the room and saluted smartly. Hammond greeted the man, and took him through to the briefing room, where Carter and Jonas were waiting along with Teal'c. McKenzie greeted his new team-mates warmly, with handshakes all round, a nod and a 'Ma'am' to Carter and a wink to Teal'c. General Hammond started the briefing off.

"Sergeant, I'm assuming that you're up to speed with the goings on here?"

"Yes, sir, between the files I've read and Teal'c's explanation I'm well clued in," he said.

"Excellent. Now, due to the continued absence of Colonel O'Neill, SG-1 is off the mission roster, and this will continue until he returns. Major Carter and Mr. Quinn are conducting research with Thor, which leaves you and Teal'c at a loose end. I would suggest that you two link up with SG-3, they're conducting training exercises at the Alpha Site. I need you to be fully versed in SG team protocols, Sergeant, by the time O'Neill returns. I have no doub-" Hammond was cut off by the offworld activation alarm.

"I'll go check this out, SG-1. Please wait here," the General said, then descended into the control room. SG-1 drifted over to the windows to watch. After a few seconds, the iris opened, allowing a man to step through who was dressed in distinctive clothing of a type favoured by only one race.

"He's Tok'ra," Sam said, "this can't be good,"

Sure enough, Hammond soon reappeared with their visitor in tow, who was looking very grave. He introduced himself as Thoran.

"General Hammond, SG-1, I regret to inform you that Kanan and Colonel O'Neill have gone missing from our base," he said.

There was instant consternation from Hammond, Carter and Teal'c. McKenzie simply sat back and watched Thoran's reactions and body language very closely as the Tok'ra fended off SG-1's questions.

After a medium-rare grilling, they let Thoran return to the Tok'ra with his tail firmly between his legs, carrying the message that the Tau'ri were officially Not Pleased with their erstwhile allies. Carter and Hammond were worried about O'Neill, and were swapping theories. McKenzie butted in firmly but politely with his assessment.

"There's plenty that he's not told us. He'll be back soon, probably to tell us that they _deeply_ regret the situation, but unfortunately they are unable to help us find Colonel O'Neill," he said calmly. "We're going to have to press him much harder next time, and it might get ugly,"

"I concur, General Hammond. We will have to greatly increase our efforts to obtain any meaningful information when Thoran returns," Teal'c said.

--

True to the predictions of McKenzie and Teal'c, Thoran returned later that day. The news he carried was even worse than SG-1 had thought it would be, as O'Neill was in the hands of Ba'al, imprisoned in the System Lord's most secret fortress.

The Tok'ra left soon after, but not before the Tau'ri had made him swear to return when they had more news. McKenzie made his way to his quarters, marvelling at the events of his first day at the SGC, and crashed out on his bed, too tired to be jet-lagged.

--

Well, the SAS now have a man at the SGC. I'll bet the Goa'uld would be quaking in their overly shiny boots if they knew...

I won't be directly retelling all of the episodes, often I'll be focussing on other missions, the events between missions, the progress of the research into the _Mjolnir_, and possibly some rogue NID action, things like that. Major episodes like the two-parters will have the AU twist applied to them in more detail.

Reviews always welcome, etc..


	9. Chapter 8

AN: Bunnylass, thanks for your kind words! James is indeed a bit of a wit, but there are two main advantages of having him around. One, he's special forces trained and extremely professional. Two, he brings a newcomer's perspective, so he's more likely to speak his mind, similar to Jonas asking how they got the gate into the gateroom, and how it resolved their exploding gate problem.

Also, if the dates sound funny to anyone, I've shifted the events of S6 on roughly a year from the original air-dates.

Now, on with the eighth chapter!

**Stargate Command, United States, Earth. March 3rd 2003**

General Hammond stepped into the briefing room to deliver his introduction to the new arrivals from Britain. Returning the salutes from the sixteen men from the SAS, SBS and Royal Marines, he strode over to the senior officer, Colonel Tim Davies and introduced himself.

Truth be told, he was rather preoccupied at the moment with the Colonel O'Neill/Tok'ra situation, but it was his duty to meet the new people who would be under his command. He took care to shake hands and greet each man in turn, committing their names and faces to memory. His methods of command seemed to surprise a few of the men, but Hammond didn't mind.

He wasn't some hard-ass commander who had to shout all the time, his experience at the SGC had taught him that such measures were unnecessary. Instead he tried to become reasonably familiar with all his men and build an atmosphere of mutual respect. Some of his peers said that he was too soft, but the Texan didn't give a damn what they thought.

Hammond finished the introductions and turned to address the room at large.

"Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome you all to the United States, and to Stargate Command," he said, "and I am sure that you don't want to hear a long speech from me about this facility, so I'll be brief. The SGC is a very tight-knit community, everybody knows what to do and when to do it, like parts of a well-oiled machine. I've no doubt you gentlemen will fit in beautifully, but you do need to familiarise yourselves with base protocols, offworld procedures and other basic orientation. To this end, tomorrow morning you will be going through the gate to the Alpha Site, where SG-3 and 5 will be familiarising you all with the way we work. Also at the Alpha Site, we have a number of our alien allies in residence. The Tok'ra will be giving some instruction in Goa'uld technology, while the rebel Jaffa will no doubt be looking forwards to the mock battles we've got set up for you. Remember, they may be alien to you, but you are also alien to them, so be nice!" Hammond said. "We've prepared your quarters on Level 23. Once again, welcome. Dismissed!".

The men nodded respectfully and walked smartly out of the room to find their quarters and sleep off their jetlag.

Hammond made his way down the stairs to the control room and onwards toward the room where SG-1 was talking with Thoran, the Tok'ra messenger. He could hear raised voices from the room when he was still quite a distance away.

Reaching the door, he opened it to be confronted with quite a scene. The meeting had started with everyone sat round a table, yet only Jonas Quinn was still seated. Major Carter and Teal'c were standing away from the table, casting occasional venom-laden glances at their visitor. Hammond cold tell they were both seething with anger and had been shouting at Thoran moments earlier.

The real spectacle, however, was provided by McKenzie and Thoran, who were staring each other down across the table. Thoran broke eye contact and addressed Hammond very angrily.

"General Hammond, I must protest at the way I am being treated by your subordinates! They are being most disrespectful!" he almost shouted.

"One moment please, Thoran. What's going on here, SG-1?" Hammond asked. Carter and Teal'c looked as if they would explode if they opened their mouths, so Hammond turned to McKenzie and Jonas. The SAS sergeant turned round. His eyes were unsettling. Hammond could sense barely restrained anger, yet they were frightful in their intensity. His voice, however, showed no sign that it had been raised.

"General Hammond, sir, Thoran here believes that it is not in the Tok'ra's best interests to help us find Colonel O'Neill. We are trying to show him that he is incorrect in his belief, and that we would very much like to read Kanan's recent mission reports. Unfortunately, we have not yet reached an agreement," McKenzie said with false humour. Hammond could now very well understand the irateness of the Major and Teal'c.

"Thoran, I'm sure you are aware that the terms of our alliance mandate the sharing of information such as this when needed?" he asked, in an attempt to calm the situation down. He could tell that Jonas had been trying to do the same thing, yet failed.

"We cannot release such reports! It would place the operatives we do have at unnecessary risk!" the Tok'ra said. "We regret what has happened to Colonel O'Neill, but we cannot permit the release of such information!"

This had managed to irritate Jonas. "Wait a minute, we left Colonel O'Neill in your care on the understanding that he would return once Kanan had cured his disease, and found a new host! He was your responsibility, and you're now ducking out of the deal!"

The rest of SG-1 nodded their agreement. Hammond couldn't help but agree. He asked Thoran to excuse them for a moment, and walked out with SG-1.

"It's quite obvious that he's being wilfully obstructive, SG-1, but I need you to remain calm. What I would suggest is keeping him here in a VIP suite until the Tok'ra supply us with those reports," Hammond suggested.

"Indeed, such an action would give the Tok'ra High Council pause, demonstrating our limited patience in this matter," Teal'c said, drawing nods from everyone else. Hammond agreed, gesturing towards the room. They filed back inside.

"Thoran, we regret having to do this, but we can't let you leave until we have an assurance from the High Council that we will receive those mission reports," Hammond said apologetically. Thoran was stunned. "You are not a prisoner, you are a guest of this facility, and you will be housed in our most comfortable quarters," he finished.

"General, I must protest in the strongest terms! This could mean the end of our alliance! You can't do this!" the Tok'ra said. Hammond's reply was final.

"Watch me," he said firmly, leading Thoran out of the room.

--

**Unknown Planet**

Daniel Jackson was exasperated. He had come here to try and help Jack ascend, to offer him an escape from Ba'al. He wasn't completely surprised when Jack rejected his offer, and even less surprised when he kept asking Daniel to help him break out, something that the ascended archaeologist couldn't do, even though that was exactly what he would do if he could get away with it.

No, he was forced to sit here and watch as his best friend's sanity slowly ebbed away. He kept Jack talking, trying to help him that way but it was nearly useless. He kept part of his awareness focused on the SGC, waiting for them to come up with a plan. He saw the heated exchanges between SG-1 and Thoran, and thought that it could be time to exploit a few loopholes in the ascended rulebook...

--

**Stargate Command**

Thoran had not gone with Hammond quietly. He had complained at the General every step of the way to the VIP quarters, but the Texan just wasn't interested. He was now sitting on the side of the bed, angry, but less so than before.

SG-1 had dialled the last known location of the Tok'ra High Council to deliver their message. Predictably, they were very cross, and asked that they be allowed to speak with Thoran immediately. Hammond had taken a radio to Thoran. Their conversation had been brief, with the High Council not backing down. Hopefully after a while cooling his heels, Thoran would be more likely to see the situation from the Tau'ri's point of view, Hammond thought as he waded through a stack of requisition forms. He also wouldn't have been surprised if it had no effect, if their luck continued the way it had.

--

**4th March 2003, Stargate Command,** **0400 hrs.**

The night watch gate technicians were slightly on edge, as was everyone on the base who had heard about SG-1's verbal sparring with Thoran, so when the gate activated, signalling an offworld activation, people were tenser than normal. Their disquiet was understandable, given the Tok'ra's open defiance of the base's official unofficial motto: 'No-one gets left behind'.

Oddly enough, Doctor Frasier was the most senior officer on the base at the time, and consequently she was the one greeting Jacob Carter as he emerged from the Stargate.

"Jacob," she said pleasantly. Like the rest of the base, she held the former general in higher regard than the rest of the Tok'ra. "I guess you've heard about the disagreement?" she asked.

"Yes Doctor, and that's why I'm here. Are any of SG-1 on the base at the moment?" Jacob asked. Evidently he had news.

"I think they all are apart from Sam," Janet said, leading him out of the gateroom, "If you wait in the conference room, I'll go get them myself,"

"Thanks, Doctor. It'll be worth the wait,"

--

Teal'c was the first to arrive in the conference room, followed by McKenzie, who of course had not yet met Jacob. James introduced himself, shaking Jacob's hand.

"A pleasure to meet you, Sergeant. I'm Jacob Carter," the Tok'ra said warmly.

"I presume that's Carter 'senior'" McKenzie said, making air quotes around 'senior'.

"That's correct," Jacob said as Janet returned with a groggy-looking Jonas Quinn. The assembled company looked to Jacob, who started his explanation.

"Well, you guys have really put the wind up the High Council, they've been debating the issue since you last contacted them. Finally they've agreed to release Kanan's mission reports and a schematic of Ba'al's base to you, but only once Thoran is returned to them," he said happily. SG-1 relaxed considerably at this.

Janet stood, saying that she had to call a higher authority to get the authorisation, and walked into Hammond's office to call the General and Major Carter. Jacob passed the time by chatting to SG-1 about Sergeant McKenzie's appointment and the circumstances behind it. Janet returned ten minutes later, reporting that Hammond and Carter were on their way, and that they had the green light to let Thoran go.

--

Daniel Jackson watched the scene with a growing feeling of satisfaction. Hopefully it wouldn't take too much more prodding to steer events to Jack's benefit. He crossed instantly to Jack's cell, whose occupant was trying (and failing) to sleep.

"Jack, you asked me if I could help you get out of here," he said encouragingly.

"Yeah, you said no. Changed your mind, buddy?" he asked listlessly.

"I did, Jack. You have to hold on for as long as possible, hopefully soon you'll get your chance. Just make sure that you're still you when it comes," Daniel said gently.

Jack had barely heard him, but he had got Daniel's message. "Thanks, buddy, 'preciate that," he said lowly.

Daniel was worried. If Jack spent too much longer as Ba'al's prisoner, soon he would be a shadow of his former self.

--

SG-1 had dived into Kanan's mission reports the instant Jacob had brought the computer containing them through the gate. They were so buried in it that when they strung their theory together, several hours had passed, and it was lunchtime. After a quick bite to eat in the commissary, during which Sam gained her familiar 'I've got an idea' face, they went to report to Hammond. Sam's look developed further into her 'I've got a theory, it's crazy but it could work' face as they walked through the corridors.

Upon arrival in the briefing room they had to wait for Lt. Ford to finish giving a report on the training exercises at the Alpha Site, which seemed to be going very well.

Once the young USMC Lieutenant had departed, SG-1 delivered their theory about Kanan being forced to judge himself according to O'Neill's ethics and the symbiote's compulsion to rescue it's lover. During the pitch, delivered mostly by Jonas and Teal'c, Carter remained quiet until Teal'c finished speaking.

"Teal'c, you were saying earlier when we looked at those schematics that it would take a whole fleet of Goa'uld motherships to successfully assault Ba'al's base, right," she asked.

"Indeed, Major Carter. Unfortunately we do not have such assets at our disposal. While the _Mjolnir_ is indeed powerful, it would not be able to successfully complete such a mission," the Jaffa said, well aware that she was developing an idea through thinking out loud. He allowed her to continue.

"Well, obviously we don't have that, but each of the System Lords has quite a powerful fleet. If we play Ba'al off against Yu, for example, we can give Colonel O'Neill a chance of escaping," she said, receiving nods from all present. Teal'c added his assessment.

"I believe that Major Carter's plan has merit. I am familiar with Yu's First Prime, Oshu. We were allied together several times against other Goa'uld during my time serving Apophis. He is honourable and loyal. I believe that he only remains loyal to Yu to prevent the instability that would arise throughout his domain should Yu be overthrown," he said. "I believe it would be possible to contact Oshu and pass on this intelligence. Yu will not hesitate to attack, especially as Ba'al has not disclosed this base's existence to the rest of the System Lords,"

"Very well, it's the best plan I've heard so far. Teal'c, you have a go to meet with this Oshu, but I want you to be extremely careful. I don't want you to be captured as well," Hammond said. "Make it happen, people,"

--

Another chapter bites the dust!

What I'm trying to do here is show some of the episodes from different perspectives, with the POV of Daniel here for example. I will be skipping ahead occasionally, because I'm sure most readers know what will be going on, and we can focus on other things, like big honking space guns!

I believe that Janet's military rank is Major at this point, hence the 'senior officer' business.

Reviews, suggestions and constructive criticism appreciated as always.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**Chulak, 4th March 2003**

SG-1 had wasted no time after Hammond had given them the green light to go and meet Oshu. After he had dismissed them, they immediately proceeded to the locker rooms, then onwards to the armoury.

McKenzie selected a G36 assault rifle, saying that he was unfamiliar with SG-1's favoured weapon, the P90. Carter took her traditional P90, Jonas took a couple of Browning 9mm pistols, and Teal'c elected to carry his staff weapon, to go with the Jaffa armour he was wearing. All four took zats as secondary weapons, after the standard "One shot stuns, two shots kill" explanation was delivered to McKenzie.

Teal'c led the team through the Stargate to Chulak, and upon their arrival he had ordered the rebel Jaffa holding the gate to scatter and hide in the treeline. When questioned about this by Jonas, Teal'c had merely said that "It will cause us no adverse effect to make adequate provision for the unexpected, Jonas Quinn,"

The team were now loitering cautiously near the gate on Chulak, waiting for Oshu to arrive. Teal'c had promised him over the radio that it would be worth his time, and Yu's First Prime agreed to meet them within the hour.

Right on schedule, the gate activated. The human members of SG-1 did not raise their weapons, merely ensuring they were close at hand. Teal'c remained impassive. Yu was technically an enemy, after all.

On cue, four Jaffa, one bearing the gold mark of a First Prime, stepped out of the event horizon, all armed with staff weapons. McKenzie watched like a hawk as Teal'c and Oshu met at the foot of the dais, exchanging cordial yet wary greetings. The SAS man waved pleasantly as Teal'c introduced the rest of the team, with Oshu's Jaffa spreading out slowly to cover them.

"Why have you called me here, Teal'c?" Oshu asked.

"We wish to provide you with some information. While Lord Yu is indeed a System Lord and nominally an enemy of those seeking freedom, he rules fairly and honourably. Tell me, how are your master's relations with Ba'al at present?" Teal'c asked.

"My master is cursing Ba'al's name even as we speak. We believe that he raided one of my master's worlds, killing many of his warriors and subjects," the diminutive First Prime said. "Needless to say, he is plotting revenge even now,"

Teal'c was pleased. "That is most fortunate. We may have a way for Lord Yu to gain the vengeance that he seeks," he said, proceeding to give Oshu details of Ba'al's base. Oshu frowned.

"We believed that that base had been destroyed many years ago. My master will indeed be pleased," Oshu said. "What do you wish for us to give in return, Teal'c?"

"We desire only a measure of respect between ourselves and Lord Yu. His domain is far from the homeworld of the Tau'ri, he is aware that we do not pose a significant threat to each other," Teal'c said.

"That is indeed true, Teal'c. I will take this information directly to my master. Once more you and the Tau'ri have shown that you are worthy of my Lord Yu's respect," he said formally. He turned, and barked orders at his retinue, one of whom stepped over to the DHD. Making sure that none of the Tau'ri saw the address, he dialled the gate.

Oshu sent his Jaffa through. Just before he followed them, he turned to face Teal'c. He bowed, speaking softly, before passing through the event horizon.

"Well Teal'c, I think that went very well," Sam said. She noticed the expression of deep respect on Teal'c's face. "What's up?" she asked.

"Oshu's actions here and his last words have further reinforced my high opinion of him," Teal'c said.

"What'd he say?" Jonas asked.

"Shal'kek nem'ron," Teal'c said. "It is a verbal sign that a Jaffa gives to signal his commitment to achieving freedom for himself and his brothers. Oshu is doing what I and Bra'tac did while in the service of Apophis, blunting the will of his master so as to harm as few innocents as possible,"

"Going by what you said earlier, that seems to be the best thing for him to do. It takes a great amount of bravery to do something like that," McKenzie said, his warrior's respect also evident. "I suggest we return to Earth, that was an interesting first mission," he said with a small grin, which soon spread to Carter and Jonas. With all the excitement, they had entirely forgotten that it was McKenzie's first trip through the gate, never mind his first mission.

--

**Unknown Planet, March 5th 2003**

O'Neill lay on the floor of his cell. It had been quite some time since his last session with Ba'al, and O'Neill had started his own little macabre mental betting stakes on what form Ba'al's tortures would take. Would it be the acid, the knives, or something entirely new? Last time he had been correct when Ba'al took out the knives. The System Lord had not been amused by O'Neill's small cough of laughter, and had made the pain even worse than usual.

Jack was so preoccupied with his internal debates that the now familiar shift in the gravity surprised him greatly. Please, not another session, he thought, as alert as he could be in his current condition. He was most surprised to see no Jaffa coming to drag him away, and was especially surprised when the base started shaking due to what O'Neill could only assume was orbital bombardment. Cautiously, he edged out of his cell and along the corridor, the adrenalin starting to flow through him with the anticipation of battle.

He caught one of his guards unawares at a junction, unleashing all of his pent-up anger, hate and aggression, smashing the Jaffa to the ground heavily, taking his zat and firing it wildly until the hated man disappeared. Now, to find a way out of here, he thought...

Jack had found it relatively easy to navigate the corridors of the compound. He would arrive at a junction and _know_ the way to go. Whether that was down to moemories from the damned snake that had used him, or down to Daniel acting as some kind of cosmic GPS, he didn't know.

He was nearing an exit, having eliminated several of the prison guards as he got weaker and as the shaking of the base grew stronger. He spotted a figure sitting on the floor. It was Ba'al's slave, the woman who had unwittingly caused this whole damn problem. Jack grabbed her, convincing her to go with him to the gate. Jack started down the hallway with his new companion, acutely aware that his time was running out...

--

**Ha'tak Vessel, above Ba'al's fortress**

"My Lord, our scans show that the structure is nearing collapse," Oshu reported to his master.

"Excellent. Do not stop until the whole compound is shattered beyond recognition! I want Ba'al to pay dearly for his impudence. He will see that the wrath of a true god is terrible and unrelenting!" Yu said. He was clearly very angry indeed, Oshu thought, as his master left to use the sarcophagus. Returning his attention to the sensors, he noticed two life-signs moving erratically towards the gate. One of the life-signs was weakening rapidly, he saw.

His theory as to why Teal'c had contacted him vindicated, he resumed his duties.

--

**Unknown Planet**

O'Neill was now depending on his companion for support as they crossed the plain that separated them from the Stargate, and from freedom. O'Neill was aware that neither of them were in any shape to fend off any pursuers they may have picked up, so he was hoping fervently that none of the Jaffa from the now-collapsed fortress had managed to escape and pick up their trail.

O'Neill was very relieved when they reached the DHD. Now all he had to do was pick an address to dial.

Earth was not an option, as he had no GDO, so he started dialling an alternative address, recalling each symbol through a mental haze, as if the last time he had dialled this address was over a lifetime ago. Eventually he managed to enter the last symbol and activate the gate.

Climbing the steps up to the shimmering blue puddle was the most difficult thing he had ever had to do, but after an enormous effort, he made it, collapsing through the event horizon as the last dregs of his energy left him.

--

**Alpha Site**

The British Special Forces at the Alpha Site were conducting abase defence exercise against the rebel Jaffa using intars, when the chevrons on the Stargate lit up with a solid _thunk_. With reflexes honed from years of training, the Tau'ri soldiers moved smoothly towards defensive positions, ejecting the intar magazines from their weapons, replacing them with live rounds, ready for any intruder.

What Lieutenant Southwell of the Royal Marines did not expect to come through, however, was an unarmed woman, dragging an unconscious man down the dais.

The woman shouted out in the Goa'uld language as the gate disengaged, causing Rak'nor and a number of his warriors to run over to the gate. Southwell could see the Jaffa commander tense in shock as he saw the unconscious man. He spoke urgently into his radio, and directed his warriors to take their visitors to the medical facility. Southwell wasn't overly curious as to the identity of the man. His mate Jones was in the med centre, after having taken an intar bolt to the face. He'd find out soon enough.

--

Colonel Reynolds and SG-3 charged across the Alpha Site, having received an urgent radio call from Rak'nor, who was running the exercises today. Entering the medical centre, he paused as he saw the new arrival.

It was Colonel O'Neill, and he was in a terrible state.

"Hell! We need to get him back to Earth, stat!"

Reynolds immediately got on the radio, ordering whoever was nearest the gate to dial Earth. When they reported that the wormhole had been established, he set his frequency to the base's emergency channel.

"This is Colonel Reynolds at the Alpha Site! We need Doctor Frasier and a medical team here, immediately!" he said urgently. Receiving confirmation from a voice, probably Walter, he turned to the young woman who had brought O'Neill through the gate. She was looking very scared, as if she might burst into flame or drop dead at any time.

"Well, ma'am, you've done us a great service here. Would you mind telling us who you are, and what happened to you and the Colonel here?" Reynolds asked politely. The woman looked uncertain, but after some encouragement from Reynolds she began to speak slowly, as if English was an unfamiliar language to her.

"I am Ulla," she said, "I was _lo'taur_ to Ba'al for most of my adult life. Many months ago, a man befriended me. He said he was working against my Lord. We shared a relationship for many weeks until he left, and I thought of him fondly every day, until my Lord questioned me almost a week ago. He was very harsh, even more so than usual. He demanded to know of things I did not understand, like 'Tok'ra' and the 'Tau'ri'. My master kept me in one of his magic cells, until one day it's magic failed, and the man you see here found me. He wore a different face to the man I loved, but I could see a spark of him in his eyes. We ran from my master's palace as it fell around us, attacked by the magic of the gods. We ran to the _chappa'ai_, and he brought us here, losing the last of his strength as he did so. I owe you and he a great debt," she said, gaining confidence as she did so. Reynolds and his team looked thunderous as they heard of what Ba'al had done.

"Well Ulla, you can be sure that if any of us manage to get our hands on Ba'al, his end will not be pretty," Reynolds said.

They didn't have long to wait until Doctor Frasier arrived with her medical team, who immediately placed O'Neill on a stretcher. Reynolds supplied the diminutive doctor with all the information he could, also indicating Ulla. Frasier nodded, frowning. She invited Ulla to accompany her back to Earth, and as quickly as they had arrived, the medical team left, with Ba'al's former _lo'taur_ in tow.

--

**Stargate Command, Earth**

Major Samantha Carter was sprinting down the corridors of the SGC towards the nearest elevator, where she swiped her ID card to call the lift.

"Come on, come on, damned thing!" she muttered impatiently as she waited. Eventually the doors slid open _agonizingly_ slowly to reveal Teal'c and Jonas. Joining them, she hit the button for the infirmary level, watching as the numbers ticked towards their destination, far too slowly for Carter's liking.

"I presume Doctor Frasier has informed you of O'Neill's return?" Teal'c asked.

"Yeah, she has," Carter said, lost in her worrying. She was almost biting her nails.

Finally, the elevator reached it's destination, and Carter took off down the hallway towards the infirmary, almost bowling over Sergeant Siler in the process. Teal'c and Jonas followed at a more reasonable, but still brisk pace.

The pair arrived at the infirmary to see Sam standing over O'Neill's bed, looking stricken. Doctor Frasier approached them.

"Teal'c, Jonas, it's good to see you here," she said.

"What is Colonel O'Neill's condition?" Teal'c asked. Janet was only too happy to oblige.

"He's suffering from extreme exhaustion and shock due to both malnutrition and dehydration. There are some scars on his chest, probably wounds not fully healed from the torture, but the most serious problem he has right now is extreme sarcophagus addiction. It'll be at least two weeks before he's able to go back on duty," she said, handing the Jaffa a copy of O'Neill's chart. Teal'c was clearly angered.

"It is most likely that Ba'al tortured O'Neill by killing and then reviving him by means of the sarcophagus," he said, "Such a method will eventually cause its recipient to lose their sanity in a very short space of time," he continued. His face grew stony. "I swear, Doctor Frasier, that someday I will have the pleasure of killing Ba'al in the slowest and most painful way I can imagine. It is better than he deserves," he rumbled. Janet couldn't help but agree, and she had no doubt that most of the SGC personnel would have a score to settle with the System Lord. The doctor grinned evilly. Ba'al had no idea of the force he'd unleashed upon himself, she thought.

--

Another chapter done!

Ba'al's _lo'taur_ was never named in the show, so rather lazily I've used the first name of the actress who played her.

I've always been a bit mystified by Oshu. He seems like the sort of guy who'd jump ship and join the free Jaffa the instant he could, so I'm trying to flesh his reasoning and character out a bit.

Reviews appreciated as always!


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**Stargate Command, Earth, 8th March 2003**

It was the early hours of the morning in Colorado Springs. One would've expected Colonel Jack O'Neill to be fast asleep in his private room in the SGC's infirmary, but he wasn't. In fact, sleep was very far from his mind at the moment. Sleep for Jack O'Neill brought nightmares of death and torture at the hands of Ba'al, and sarcophagus addiction was driving him crazy, which made the nightmares worse still.

Jack did have help, though. The most direct help came in the form of Dr. Janet Frasier, who was doing her damnedest to get the colonel through the lows in which he currently found himself. Jack swore to himself that he'd never complain about the petite doctor ever again, she'd foregone sleep and even meals to help Jack, until he'd insisted that she was starting to look worse than he felt, and that she ought to go home and sleep. She'd smiled very sweetly at him, and Jack remembered the exchange fondly.

"Well, Colonel, I know you must be getting better, you can't even make acidic quips at me any more," she had said, causing Jack to be filled with burning guilt.

"Doc, I'm being selfish here," he said. "If you burn out, I'll be stuck in here for even longer, because I sure as hell won't let McKenzie near me!"

The doctor had eventually seen it Jack's way, and had gone to her quarters to get some much-needed rest, leaving Jack alone for the first time since his return to Earth.

Jack was dazing, not really wanting to fully fall asleep. Instead, he lay there imagining the ways in which he was going to kill Ba'al, each more unpleasant, slow and painful than the last. He was imagining the System Lord being sealed in a sarcophagus along with some of that burning acid. He grinned inwardly as he pictured the scene.

Jack was thinking that the effect would be much greater if the sarcophagus had a transparent lid when his musings were interrupted by a new voice, the voice of the being who had helped him retain the trappings of sanity during his time with Ba'al.

"Hey, Jack," Daniel said, materialising in the seat across from Jack's bed, the same seat that Frasier had briefly fallen asleep in that afternoon. "How are you doing?" the ascended archaeologist asked gently.

"Well, I haven't got an ancient disease, I haven't got a snake in my head and most importantly of all, I haven't got a System Lord getting his stress relief by killing me every afternoon after he comes back from the office," Jack said. "I'd say I'm peachy,"

"I'm glad to hear that, Jack, really glad. I was so close to breaking you out of there myself. It was killing me-" Jack glared at him, unimpressed, "Sorry. There was nothing else I wanted to do more than bust you out," he said.

"But that would be against the rules on board your particular plane of existence, I get it," Jack said. He could see a deep sadness on his friend's face.

"Do you even _like_ being ascended?" he asked seriously.

"The novelty's starting to wear off. The rules here are, are, so complex and Byzantine that you can't even relax for a second. I'm on a very short leash with the others now, even after what I _did_ do to help you, and to be honest, Jack, it's starting to grate," he said, showing a bit of the Daniel Jackson spark that Jack knew so well.

"I'll bet," Jack said, knowing full well that Daniel's strong ethics would be clashing strongly with the completely alien culture in which he now lived.

Their conversation continued through to dawn-time. Daniel had left with a small smile, having been cheered up by Jack's wit. Before he had left, he had told Jack that:

"Things have changed around the SGC, there'll be one change in particular that you must deal with,"

0800 came, and Jack was pondering Daniel's words of wisdom when there was a knock at the door. Thinking that it would be Frasier or even Carter, he called the visitor in cheerily, but the visitor was not one he was expecting, not yet.

General Hammond entered the room softly, enquiring as to Jack's state of being. The General allowed himself a brief grin when Jack gave him the same answer that he had given Daniel, then settled down to business, explaining the events that had transpired while Jack had been away.

George was most surprised when the Colonel did not object strongly to the British involvement in the SGC. In fact, the man seemed pleased by the news. Hammond dimly recalled from Jack's file that the Colonel had been involved with several highly successful joint covert operations with the SAS in Iraq and Somalia. No doubt these experiences had made the man more amenable to the British than say, the Russians, Hammond thought.

There was one final piece of news that Hammond had to deliver, and it was potentially the most controversial; the news that SG-1 had gained a new member. George took a deep breath, choosing his words carefully.

"Colonel, there is one more thing I need to discuss with you," he started, cautiously...

--

**Diego Garcia, Indian Ocean, Earth**

Major Carter and Jonas were aboard the MV _Phillips_, which was sailing through the gathering dusk towards the site that had been prepared by US and British military engineers for the _Mjolnir_. A combination of Tok'ra tunnelling crystals and old-fashioned explosives had been used to carve a large hole in the shallowest part of the lagoon. Carter was impressed with the audacity of the plan, which was to land the _Mjolnir_ in the lagoon, so that it was completely covered by water. The plan was then for the ship to be enclosed by the extremely odd structure now looming ahead of their small merchant vessel. To Carter's eye, it seemed to be a cross between an oil drilling platform, a glass dome, a caisson and something out of a sci-fi movie. Carter had no idea how the structure had been built in such a short time, but the concept was ingenious.

The 800 metre wide, 150 metre tall dome was to be sunk over the _Mjolnir_ after it had submerged itself. Then, the water would be evacuated via an array of high-volume water pumps, eventually leaving the _Mjolnir_ in a dry, steel-framed enclosure with a base-station floating above it, providing access and necessities such as an air supply.

The complicating factor to the design was that the _Mjolnir_ could be required to launch at any time. To this end, each of the glass panels and steel supporting rods was laced with naquadah-enhanced explosive cord, sufficient to break the dome and allow the ship to leave. It was a secret base worthy of a Bond supervillain, Carter thought.

If Carter was impressed, then Jonas was goggling openly at the huge _temporary_ structure. Kelowna's largest building was the sprawling governmental compound in which he used to work, and it was not that much larger than this huge dome.

Jonas realised that because of the secrecy concerns, Earth was going about fighting the Goa'uld in a very half-hearted way. If they could apply the full industrial base of the planet to the task, if the industrial base that could produce something like that dome was maximised, then the Goa'uld could be history within a very short space of time.

By this time, the _Phillips_ had come alongside the barge that was acting as the control centre for the operation. Jonas, Sam and several engineers in hard hats disembarked from the merchant ship. The two SG-1 members ascended the steps to the control centre, arriving to see a surprisingly calm scene. There were several people sat around a bank of computer screens, which were displaying telemetry from the hundreds of pressure, stress and temperature sensors embedded in the dome's structure and in the hardened surface that the ship was going to land on.

Another group of people, mostly USAF personnel, was attending to the sensor and navigational beacon systems that would track the _Mjolnir _as it made it's descent.

The final group, which appeared to consist of engineers from the US and UK, was undergoing a final briefing from two officers, one from the US Army Corps of Engineers and the other from the Royal Navy. After the group had dispersed, Sam walked over and introduced herself.

"Major Samantha Carter, US Air Force," she said, saluting the more senior Royal Navy officer.

"Ah, Major, good to see you. My name is Commander Bond, this is my island, and unless I'm mistaken, this is all your fault," he said good-naturedly. "You must be Jonas Quinn," he said, shaking Jonas' hand, "Allow me to introduce Captain Williams," he said, indicating the US Army officer. "Captain Williams will be coordinating the deployment of the dome enclosure once your chaps have landed the very large alien spaceship in my back yard. I believe that they're ready to begin," he said, handing the two SGC personnel radio earpieces, so they could listen in on the action. He nodded to them, then moved to the centre of the room. He clicked his radio on so that everyone, both at the landing site and on the bridge of the _Mjolnir_, could hear him.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now ready. On my mark, we shall be commencing the operation in sixty seconds," he paused, looking at the wall clock, "mark," he said authoritatively.

--

**High Earth Orbit**

Colonel Emerson acknowledged the transmission from Bond. He turned to Lieutenants Marks and Gant, who were going to be flying the vessel during the difficult manoeuvre.

"Marks, Gant, prepare for the first burn," he ordered. The _Mjolnir_ was going to fire it's engines in conjunction with the repulsors. The aim was to bring the ship to a stop directly above Diego Garcia, with the ship being supported by it's repulsors. Then the descent proper could begin. It would be the most time consuming element, as the ship had to cover the tens of thousands of kilometres between itself and the top of the atmosphere. Then the fun would really begin. Emerson looked at the clock.

Fifteen seconds.

Ten seconds.

Emerson watched as the seconds ticked down. He could see Marks beginning to sweat slightly from the anticipation.

Five seconds.

Emerson started giving orders to the bridge crew as the clock ticked downwards. When it reached zero, he gave one last simple order.

"Execute," he said.

On the outside of the ship, several hundred thrusters started firing, working furiously to scrub away the speed of the ship. This would have caused a 'primitive' craft such as the Space Shuttle to simply fall out of orbit, but the repulsor systems of the _Mjolnir_ meant that no altitude was lost.

On the bridge, Emerson was primarily concerned with one display, that of the point on the Earth's surface that was directly beneath them. Currently they were about 100 miles out from Diego Garcia but they were closing steadily.

Another few minutes, and Marks reported success. They were now ready to begin the second phase. Emerson signalled Diego Garcia.

"Commander Bond, we are on station. Our altitude is forty-five thousand klicks. Ready to begin descent phase on your command," he reported in the clipped tones of an aviator.

"Thank you Colonel, our tracking systems concur. Engineering teams are ready for you. You have clearance for the descent phase, Colonel Emerson. Bond out," the commander of Diego Garcia replied smoothly. Emerson nodded to Marks, and the Lieutenant cut power to the repulsor systems, allowing the Earth's gravity to reach out and draw the massive vessel downwards.

The strength of Earth's gravity at 45,000km is relatively weak, so Marks fired the dorsal thrusters for thirty seconds to kick-start the process. All eyes were now glued to two screens. The first showed a set of cross-hairs on an image of the Earth, which were currently exactly lined up on the GPS coordinate of Diego Garcia. The second was a readout showing altitude, acceleration and velocity. The velocity and acceleration were currently fairly low, but they would only increase as the altitude decreased and the grip of Earth's gravity became ever stronger.

--

**Stargate Command, Earth**

General Hammond was in his office. His chat with Colonel O'Neill had gone surprisingly well. Jack hadn't complained much, and hadn't even threatened to shoot anybody over the appointment of Sergeant McKenzie, even when he heard about the SAS man being the sharpest shot on SG-1. The colonel was not, however, overjoyed by the arrangement, and George could tell that the likeable young SAS man was not going to be in for an easy ride.

George looked at his watch. Time to send SG-3, 6 and 8 on their latest mission, a mission to conduct a surgical strike against one of Anubis's shipyards. The mission was to be conducted alongside Rak'nor and a group of his Jaffa, and the SG teams were going to attack disguised as Jaffa, in the hope of fuelling the fires of the war between the System Lords.

They were originally going to mark themselves as being servants of Bastet, but Hammond had vetoed that idea. He had suggested that they pick a different System Lord to impersonate. When he had put forward his alternative candidate, all of the men had agreed heartily.

Hammond started making his way down to the control room as the gate started dialling out. Ba'al was sure going to get a surprise at the next System Lord meeting, the Texan thought gleefully.

--

**Alpha Site**

The training exercises at the Alpha Site had finished earlier that day, and Teal'c and James were scheduled to return to Earth later that night. The two members of SG-1 were passing their time very productively. Teal'c had invited McKenzie to spar that afternoon, and was going through the motions of Jaffa melee combat skills with the Brit, and while James wouldn't admit it, he was knackered. His hand-to-hand training in the Parachute Regiment and then the SAS hadn't come anywhere close to this, but he was savouring the challenge, even though he was fully aware that Teal'c was going easy on him with the wooden quarterstaffs.

Teal'c had commented that James had excellent mental discipline and that he was a quick learner, both attributes vital for hand-to-hand fighting.

Indeed, by the late afternoon, James was forcing Teal'c to raise his game, catching the Jaffa off guard several times in their last session.

As Teal'c helped him to his feet, James reflected that at least he would soon be able to beat off any number of drunken attackers when he was on the lash with his mates back in Hereford.

--

**Ha'tak Vessel _Mjolnir_**

Emerson and the bridge crew of the _Mjolnir_ had not relaxed through the whole 44,500km of their journey so far. Now approached the tricky part, the atmospheric entry. Normally, an eight hundred metre wide object entering the atmosphere at night would light up the sky over most of India, east Africa and Madagascar. Fortunately, the repulsor systems of the _Mjolnir_ would be very handy in avoiding such a public display.

Once the ship was approaching the top of the atmosphere, Emerson gave the order to re-engage the repulsor systems. To an observer travelling down alongside, it would've appeared that the ha'tak had stopped dead, but the repulsors had slowed it's descent from a speed of hundreds of kilometres per second to just a few thousand kilometres per hour, enough to avert most of the heating that would occur due to friction as the ship passed through the ever-thickening atmosphere. As the ship passed serenely down through the stratosphere, it decelerated even more, down to only a few hundred kilometres per hour. Marks and Gant were very busy with the controls all the way down acting on information from the ship's sensors and guidance from their counterparts at the control centre on Diego Garcia, trying to hold the massive vessel on course for the tiny atoll in the Indian Ocean.

--

**Command Centre, Diego Garcia**

Major Carter watched the sensor displays showing the _Mjolnir_ descending rapidly past 30,000 feet. Air traffic wouldn't be a problem, as agents from the CIA and SIS had 'persuaded' the few airlines who would be flying over the western Indian Ocean that night to find minor technical faults with their aircraft. These faults were very minor, but required that the flights be delayed until morning, when they would all be fixed.

The _Mjolnir _was passing 25,000 feet by now, and the activity in the small control room stepped up a gear. Commander Bond (Carter had discovered that his first name _was _actually James, much to his chagrin) stepped outside and made a large waving gesture to the engineers on the barge. Several seconds later, the landing patch of the _Mjolnir_ was flooded in brilliant white light from dozens of high-intensity lights. Indicator beacons placed out to the north, south, east and west activated, giving the _Mjolnir_ a radio bullseye to aim for. The ship was now very close.

Carter stepped out onto the balcony with Commander Bond and looked upwards to see a small smudge in the sky that was growing almost impossibly quickly. It resolved itself into a triangular shape, and the details of the ship were becoming evident. Carter could feel the balcony start to vibrate, the oscillations rapidly increasing in frequency and amplitude, almost threatening to shake the place apart. The ship had roared down through a wispy cloud and _screeched_ to a standstill about fifty feet above the rippling, floodlit water of Diego Garcia. The air filled with the menacing echoing sound of the ha'tak's repulsor engines. Under the floodlights, engineers scrambled to their positions like ants in a nest, ready to monitor the massive ship as it made it's final descent into the space that had been cleared in the lagoon bed. This was the tensest part of the operation, as there were only a few tens of metres of clearance for the ship in the lagoon.

On the bridge, Marks and Gant took a few moments to compose themselves. Now they would be changing their roles slightly. Marks would control their rate of descent, while Gant would be controlling the rotation and level of the ship, with Gant in command.  
Having gained clearance to proceed, Gant ordered Marks to start taking the ship down at two feet per second. Keeping the ship level, she ordered the rate cut to zero after twenty seconds. They were now ten feet above the now gently thrumming water. She ordered Marks to take it down again, this time at half a foot per second. Almost imperceptibly slowly, the ship eased down towards the water below.

The control room was now providing much of the guidance for Gant. The ship was very slowly inching down towards the water. It took an additional twenty seconds for the lowest part of the tetrahedral main hull to strike the water. The moment of impact was surprisingly undramatic, as the ship was only covering six inches per second. A gentle splashing noise echoed around the lagoon. Carter had to hand it to Marks and Gant, they were doing a sterling job under the conditions.  
She watched as the massive ship gently lowered itself into the water. With her trained pilot's eye, she catalogued the hundreds of tiny adjustments in descent rate, yaw, pitch and roll.

Soon, the lower parts of the superstructure were striking the surface of the water. Jonas stepped outside from the hushed atmosphere inside. Flashing his signature grin, Jonas joined Carter, and the pair settled down to watch the vessel complete it's submergence inch by inch, foot by foot, metre by metre.

--

It took another hour or so under the bright floodlights, but eventually the engineers watching the landing pad sensors reported that the ship's full weight was settled on the concrete pad. Commander Bond then received confirmation from Emerson that the ship was settled and that he had powered down all non-critical systems, which in the ships' current situation meant everything but life support.

The next part of the plan could now move ahead. One of the Al'kesh recovered from the _Mjolnir_ was hovering overhead, ring-transporting the twenty or so people on board off. Apart from Emerson, Marks, Gant and the rest of the bridge crew, the only other people on board were Doctor Zelenka and his teams of scientists who had been watching the critical systems like hawks. Now they were all leaving, so the dome engineers could do their work.

--

Apologies for the long wait.

The descent of the _Mjolnir_ was quite fun to write, hope people like it!

Reviews always appreciated.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**Stargate Command, Earth**

Major Carter watched Jonas leave the lift on the way to his quarters. He had said that he was very tired and that he ought to get some sleep after the trip to the Indian Ocean. Carter wasn't as weary, she was used to long hours. They had returned to the US on board the Al'kesh that also carried Colonel Emerson and some of Dr Zelenka's scientists.

The sub-orbital nature of the flight meant that it only took an hour to get back to Colorado.

The lift doors opened at level 27, that of the General's office. Carter walked the short distance to the office. Finding the office unoccupied, and noting that there was a active wormhole, she made her way through the briefing room and down the stairs to the control room. General Hammond was there, communicating with the Alpha Site.

By the sound of it, there was tension between the Tok'ra and Jaffa that were in residence at Earth's off-world base. Hammond concluded the conversation and turned to Major Carter.

"Major, welcome back. I trust all went smoothly on Diego Garcia?" he asked, gesturing towards the briefing room. The two officers ascended the staircase.

"Yes sir, there were no significant problems. The deployment of the dome had to be delayed slightly, the engineers were concerned about waste heat from the _Mjolnir_ damaging the steel frame of the dome. All is well now, though," she reported.

Hammond was pleased. This was the best news he'd had for a while. They entered Hammond's office to continue their discussion.

"Major, I do have a question about the R&D teams and their resources," the General said, "More specifically, will the division of resources between Diego Garcia and the X-303 project cause any significant delay or technical difficulty?"

"You are correct about that, sir. Doctor Zelenka's team will be transferring to Diego Garcia soon to start working properly on the _Mjolnir_. This means that Doctor McKay will be taking over the X-303, of course," she said, with a roll of her eyes as she mentioned the Canadian scientist, "and as much as I hate to admit it, his expertise with naquadah and naquadria reactor technology will be a huge help,"

"Yes, Major, I've just read a report from Area 51 on the subject of the naquadria reactor. Doctor McKay has been working with Thor while you've been gone, his report is quite enlightening," he said, picking up the document and handing it to Carter, who flipped it open, looking at the summary. Her eyebrow raised in surprise.

"They're only two weeks away from hyperspace test-flights of a modified F-302?" she asked. Hammond nodded.

"I see McKay's trying to take all the credit," she noted. Her eyes narrowed on a particular line, and her face broke into a grin.

"I see Thor added a few comments," she said, "He's got quite a _dry_ wit, wouldn't you say, sir?"

"I thought you might like that part, Major. The test flights will be taking place in two weeks time, as you saw. They were originally going to ask Colonel O'Neill to fly the F-302, but given his situation they've selected one of the other senior 302 pilots, a Major Cameron Mitchell. No doubt the Colonel will want to watch," the General said. "Apparently he should be up and about a few days before then,"

Carter smiled gently, knowing the Colonel's disdain for being stuck in one place for extended periods of time.

"Actually, I was going to go down and check up on him now, sir," she said.

Hammond nodded warmly.

"Be my guest, Major. I would advise that you introduce the colonel to Sergeant McKenzie before long, however. Dismissed," he said.

--

Jack O'Neill was having a bit of a mixed day today. He was finally able to sleep properly, and he was strong enough to take a brief walk around his room.

What he did _not_ like though, was the incessant prodding, poking and testing that featured so strongly in his life at the moment. He swore that every time he ended up here it got worse, maybe a ploy by Frasier to make him be more careful out in the field? He wouldn't put it past her, she was easily as cunning as any of the great generals or admirals.

Jack's internal monologue was being intruded upon very frequently by a young nurse, Evans, who was looking at monitors, scribbling on charts and generally doing the mother hen act, right down to pursing her lips when she checked some statistic or other and it wasn't to her liking.

Finally Evans seemed to have finished.

"So, Evans, what's wrong with me today?" he asked lazily, as he propped himself up on his pillows. Evans shot him a good-natured yet exasperated look.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"Sir, I'd say you're improving rapidly but your blood sugar levels are a bit on the low side," she said, glancing at Jack's chart. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go take this blood sample to Doctor Frasier,"

With that she left, Jack's eyes following her as she did so. She may have been a nurse and therefore the bane of Jack's life, but she wasn't bad looking, Jack thought.

The Colonel was forced to retract his searching gaze by the arrival of another blonde female. Carter was followed by Teal'c and another guy that Jack couldn't see properly at first. Sam was the first to speak.

"Hey, sir, how are you doing?" she asked airily. Jack was instantly put on his guard.

"Apparently I'll live, although I'd rather like to get out of here, sooner rather than later, go home, crack open a few beers and catch up on the TV shows I missed while meetin' and greetin' with that snakehead," he said. "What's the news around here? None of the nurses will share the gossip," he queried.

"We've certainly been busy, Colonel. The _Mjolnir_ is now secured at Diego Garcia, Doctor Zelenka and his teams are salivating at the possibilities ahead. Thor and Doctor McKay are very close to perfecting the naquadria reactor and hyperspace window technology for the F-302, they're going to be doing some test flights in a few weeks, piloted by a Major Mitchell," she said.

"Mitchell. Heard of him, very handy with an F-16. He'll be OK," Jack opined.

"Yes, sir. On the SGC front, the big mission at the moment is an attack on one of Anubis's shipyards, which they should be executing around now. Lastly, the first of the British SG teams is going on their first mission in a few days," his 2IC said carefully.

"Ah, yes. Our British friends," Jack said neutrally. "I guess this is where your companion here comes in," he said, looking towards McKenzie, who returned the colonel's neutral gaze.

"Indeed, Colonel O'Neill. This is Sergeant James McKenzie, of the United Kingdom's Special Air Service," Teal'c said, as the two men shook hands firmly, with a 'Sergeant' from O'Neill, and a nod and a 'Sir' from McKenzie. Teal'c continued.

"During your convalescence, Major Carter and I have been educating Sergeant McKenzie on the operating procedures of SG-1 and the SGC. He is a most capable warrior, and was most helpful in securing the information which eventually led to your escape from Ba'al," the Jaffa intoned. O'Neill seemed to warm to the guy with that.

"I was happy to help, sir. I must say I didn't take too kindly to that Thoran bloke, though, or the rest of the Tok'ra for that matter, apart from your father, ma'am," the sergeant said, the last part directed to Major Carter. Jack's expression brightened further.

"I'm starting to like you, Sergeant, you're obviously a good judge of character," the colonel said.

The chat continued for a while, and included Jack trying to find out whether McKenzie had a liking for the Simpsons (a topic that the SAS sergeant refused to be drawn on), and hearing some of the sergeant's war stories.

Eventually, Jack's attention returned to Carter, who had spent most of the conversation looking politely uninterested.

"Carter, while I've been in here I've had an idea. We've got a whole slew of cool ships now, and I was also thinking about how we're always having to go scrounge naquadah from abandoned dry mines," he said.

"We were thinking about contacting the Abydonians and asking them if we could restart Ra's old mines using our mining technology. We do need a lot of it now, what with these Goa'uld ships and the X-303," Carter supplied. "Unfortunately it's going to be a struggle."

"For once Major, you're wrong," Jack said, punctuating the 'wrong' with a jab of his finger. "We have all the naquadah we need in this solar system, thanks to Anubis,"

Carter looked like she'd just been slapped with a dead fish.

"Of course, Anubis's asteroid. What were we thinking?" she said ruefully.

"Now, we can go check it out, just borrow a ship and take a look, possibly take along Bruce Willis and a team," the colonel quipped.

"Don't get me started on that movie, sir," the major said quickly. She got highly irked by bad physics in movies.

"What?" the colonel asked yet again.

--

**Anubis's shipyards**

The plan for the mission had been simple. Fly in on a cloaked cargo ship, dump some funky Jaffa C-4, blow the station and bug out.

Of course, the saying was that no plan survived contact with the enemy, and it was holding true here, Reynolds thought. The infiltration element had gone well, thanks to the (uncomfortable) Jaffa armour that he and his men were wearing. They had even managed to place all of their explosive charges.

The problem had come when they tried to leave. Their cargo ship had been discovered and destroyed, and now the motley crew was fighting its way towards a hangar bay. The rebel Jaffa with them were perfectly comfortable, but Reynolds and his teams were beginning to hate the staff-weapons that they were carrying. It was almost impossible to hit anything at a decent range and they were far too long for fighting in enclosed spaces.

Perversely, the gritty fighting was serving a purpose. Two of Rak'nor's Jaffa had been killed, and their bodies had been deliberately left behind to give Anubis the impression that Ba'al was behind the attack. Fortunately none of the SGC personnel had fallen yet, but a lieutenant on SG-6 had been hit in the shoulder, and had changed to using a zat in his left hand.

After the last enemy fell, Reynolds and Rak'nor guided everyone down the corridors. They decided to switch to stealth tactics, as the naquadah power vials in their staves were running low. To this end, they all ducked into a room to avoid an enemy patrol.

"Hey, Colonel, take a look at this," Ford said, gesturing towards an open storage crate. Reynolds stepped over to take a look. Inside were several vials of the liquid naquadah fuel, vital for powering staff weapons.

"Excellent, pass them around Lieutenant," the colonel ordered, taking one for himself.

Turning to the others, he suggested that they take a look in the other crates that were strewn around the room.

The search turned up a few interesting artefacts, including a few of the Goa'uld's PDA-esque devices. The language on the devices didn't look anything like that of the Goa'uld, which the Jaffa confirmed. To Reynolds, it looked vaguely similar to the writing used by the Ancients.

Reynolds had just stuffed the devices under his armour, cursing it's impracticality when one of the Jaffa, M'zel, called them over to a large crate which he had just unsealed. Looking inside, he saw several items that looked like black plastic and reminded Reynolds of Darth Vader's armour for some reason, a belief confirmed when M'zel lifted it out of the crate. It appeared to be a type of body armour, not dissimilar to that currently being developed at the SGC.

M'zel passed the plate to Reynolds, who hefted it in his hand. The armour was incredibly light and thin, and Reynolds started wondering why the armour was being developed at all, mainly because the Goa'uld, to maintain their image as gods, had to keep their serfs in a state of technological stasis.

More of the armour was being found in other crates by the others. Acting on a whim, Reynolds walked over to the wall, and placed the plate against it, along with a bar of chocolate behind the plate. The Jaffa were looking on, puzzled, as Reynolds primed his staff-weapon and fired it at the plate, which went clattering away as a result of the kinetic energy of the blast.

Peterson walked over to the chocolate bar, which he opened, taking a bite.

"Completely fine," he said, grinning. Rak'nor had found the plate, and it was completely unharmed. Several of the SGC personnel let out low whistles.

"That settles that, then. Best take some of this with us, as much as we can find," Reynolds said. Each person present then proceeded to place several sheets of the new material under their Jaffa chain-mail coats. Reynolds briefly considered taking a whole crate, and concluded that it was probably worthwhile. He ordered the injured lieutenant and SG-8's linguist to pack as much as they thought they could carry and to bring one of the crates along.

Reynolds then turned to Rak'nor.

"Where to now?" he asked shortly.

"We are not far from the hangar bay, it is on the deck below us. There we should be able to steal a small ship and fly out of here," the Jaffa warrior said. Reynolds nodded in agreement, then he tilted his head towards the door. The band of about twenty Tau'ri and Jaffa took up positions near the door. When this had been done, Rak'nor activated the door controls, allowing Reynolds and M'zel to check the corridor beyond. Finding it clear, they signalled for the rest of the group to follow them to an elevator shaft.

--

**Hangar Control Bay, Anubis's shipyard**

The late-day shift had been as boring as ever for Dey'nis and his crew, not that that dissuaded them from their duty to their god. That had changed when the alert sirens sounded not long before, as there were reports from the patrols of a force of enemy Jaffa who bore the mark of Ba'al. Strangely though, the reports of action had ceased. Dey'nis assumed that the cowardly warriors of Ba'al had been dealt with in the customary manner, so he didn't look up at first when the elevator doors opened and several figures stepped through into his control room. It was a cry from one of his subordinates that drew his attention, and he looked up to see none of his men standing and a storm of zat'nik'tel discharges flying towards him just before his lights went out.

Rak'nor quickly stepped over to the console.

"Brothers, there is an Al'kesh bomber in the hangar that is ours for the taking," he said. Tapping some controls, he directed control of the hangar bay doors to the ship, locking out control from the station with a code.

"We must move quickly. The commanders of this area will quickly notice any disturbance," he added urgently, guiding the men towards the door into the hangar. They were forced to sprint the fifty metres along the gantry to the Al'kesh in groups of three to evade any fire that may be directed their way. Reynolds ordered Ford to take over the crate from the injured Lieutenant Smithson, and eventually all of the strike team made it to the relative safety of the Al'kesh's cockpit, having checked the rest of the ship for any enemies.

When Reynolds arrived, Rak'nor and another of his Jaffa, Kin'ter, were performing some rushed preflight checks. When that had been done, Rak'nor hit the hangar door controls, exposing the bay to the vacuum of space. Once the doors had fully opened, the engines were throttled up to maximum and the ship soared out of the bay, leaving melted bulkheads and electrical discharges in its wake.

After a few minutes, Reynolds turned to Rak'nor.

"Can we blow that thing yet?" he asked. Rak'nor acquired a feral grin, nodding as he took a control from his armour. After tapping a code into the unit, he pressed a control on the side, broadcasting a signal back to the yards.

Back on board the station, the signal was received by several lumps of Jaffa naquadah explosives which had been placed in strategic points throughout the complex, including the main reactor conduits, the sensor array and the naquadah fuel storage. The resulting explosion vaporised the central hub of the orbital yard. The debris that remained started to consume itself in a series of secondary explosions as it started to drift down into the atmosphere of the planet below, where it would impact, damaging the naquadah mines below and possibly starting a chain reaction there that could lead to a ridiculously powerful explosion that could render the planet lifeless.

Not bad for one push of a button, Reynolds thought as he looked incredulously at the sensor displays.

Rak'nor didn't relax for a moment, as the console started chirping at him.

"We have four gliders inbound from the outer patrols," he said urgently.

"Anything we can do?" the Tau'ri asked.

"For the moment, no. Kin'ter is skilled with Al'kesh weapons systems and requires no assistance," Rak'nor said as he threw the ship into a series of evasive manoeuvres.

The next few minutes felt like an Ancient Egyptian version of a sci-fi movie as the larger ship danced around, firing bursts of gold energy at their pursuers. Reynolds and the rest of those who were standing were particularly missing seats, preferably with seatbelts, as they kept getting thrown across the room by a particularly tight turn, or enemy fire.

A few more minutes after that, and Kin'ter reported that all enemies had been destroyed.

A quiet sigh of relief went round the assembled Tau'ri and Jaffa. Rak'nor wasted no time in plotting a course back to their staging point and activating the hyperdrive. Ford's thoughts summed the feeling up nicely.

"Man, Anubis is gonna be pissed. I hope he bought it..."

--

Apologies for the long break between updates. RL is Very Busy atm.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**Unknown Planet, Milky Way**

The Jaffa messenger was striding through the corridors of his master's palatial residence on his throne world, a planet in a system far above the galactic ecliptic, away from Anubis's enemies.

The Jaffa was outwardly calm, but inside he was fearful. He was carrying terrible news to the being who was his god. The messenger had never had an audience with his god before but knew of his master's very wrathful and volatile reputation. Still, it was his duty to relay this information, even though he was well aware that it could cost him his life.

The Jaffa stopped at a pair of enormous golden doors. A Prime Guard stepped out of the shadows and inquired as to the messenger's business. The messenger complied, and thought he could see a spark of pity in the senior Jaffa's eyes as he was admitted into the chamber.

The messenger could see that Anubis's back was turned to him, as he was looking out over his palace. The messenger fell to his knees and bowed his head, waiting for his god to allow him to speak.

It was several minutes before Anubis noticed the messenger.

"Speak," he said. The Jaffa's apprehension mounted another few notches.

"My Lord, I bring news from your vessel construction facilities in the Acheron system," the messenger said. Anubis had evidently picked up on the Jaffa's apprehension because his reply from under his cowl was much colder than before.

"Continue,"

"My Lord, your commander on the surface reports that your orbital yards were attacked and destroyed by forces loyal to Ba'al," the messenger said, aware that the remainder of his life could now be measured in seconds.

"What? How did your worthless kin fail against my enemy?" Anubis asked silkily.

"My Lord, a small number of Jaffa bearing Ba'al's mark infiltrated the station and sabotaged it. It was destroyed, along with all of the ships under construction there," the messenger finished, rather bravely. Anubis's only answer was to turn his back on the unfortunate messenger, who remained on his knees.

"Kill him!" the System Lord said. The Prime Guard, Mek'nar, primed his staff, inwardly apologising to his brother. He took careful aim and fired his weapon, killing the unfortunate messenger, before retreating to his anteroom.

Back in the throne room, Anubis gazed out over his palace. Ba'al would pay for his duplicity, he thought. He had severely damaged his ship-building capability, but fortunately his new flagship would be completed on schedule. He summoned Mek'nar once more.

"Convene an immediate meeting of the fleet commanders. It is time I showed Ba'al the nature of a true god's power!" he said angrily.

The Prime Guard bowed hurriedly and left the room to carry out his orders, but he served one other cause than that of the cowled System Lord in the room behind him. He would make his way to his usual contact once he had finished his duty for this day.

Master Bra'tac would be pleased, he thought.

* * *

**Stargate Command, Earth, a few days later.**

Sam walked out of the locker room and proceeded towards the base gym for her regular workout, something she had been neglecting recently as she had been giving her full attention to working on the various new technologies the SGC had received thanks to Thor. The upgraded crystals for the F-302's hyperdrive were being etched at the growing fabrication facilities at Area 51, and they had been hanging on the phone, attempting to clarify the tiniest details that Sam was certain she had covered in the notes she had sent to Nevada. She was looking forward to the chance to blow off some steam.

Arriving at the gym, she opened the door and saw another person who hadn't been in there for a while.

"Colonel, I'm surprised to see you here," she said. Said colonel was on a rowing machine, visibly grimacing. He paused to catch his breath as Sam started on the treadmill.

"Frasier started me on a recovery plan, says that I could be going home this week, and back on duty for Mitchell's test flights," Jack said breathlessly, referring to the events in just under seven days time. "I'm not what I used to be, but the snake did fix my dodgy knees,"

Sam was pleased that her CO was up and about. According to Janet, the colonel had been almost bouncing off the walls of his room since she had allowed him to get out of bed.

"That's good news sir, although the rest of us have been using the time productively," she said.

"Oh, how so?"

"As you know, I've been working on the new hyperdrive for the F-302, while Teal'c has been teaching Sergeant McKenzie the finer points of Jaffa hand-to-hand combat. I think Jonas has been immersing himself in Daniel's library when he's not helping me or in the commissary, but I could be wrong. He's been brooding a bit," Sam said.

"He's tough, he'll be fine," Jack said, then fell silent. Evidently something was bothering him.

The pair continued their workouts in companionable silence. Sam had moved on to some weights when she noticed Jack's troubled expression.

"Something on your mind, sir?"

"It's nothing,"

"Sure doesn't look like it,"

"Carter!" the colonel said irritably, then his features relaxed, "Sorry. I was wondering about Kanan. I'm starting to empathise with him, and despite what he did I have a lingering attachment to him," the colonel elaborated.

"I do kinda know what you're saying, sir. Even though Jolinar took me as her host against my will, once we shared our thoughts I realised that she had her reasons. Furthermore, the bond between host and symbiote is a strong one, even for those like us who were only blended for a short time. I'd hate to think what my father would go though if he lost Selmak for whatever reason," she opined thoughtfully.

"Can't argue with that," Jack said.

Once more, silence fell, more awkwardly than last time. While Jack and Sam had an excellent working relationship, they very rarely discussed such deeply personal matters. Sam knew of Jack's depression after he lost Charlie, and Jack knew that Sam had unresolved issues with family members, but that was all, and neither wanted to prod deeper for fear of disrupting the casual SG-1 team dynamic, already unbalanced by the recent loss of Daniel.

Carter decided to change the subject.

"By the way, sir, we're getting ready for another mission. We're going out with a couple of Alk'esh to try and find Anubis's asteroid and see if we can steer it into a safe and convenient orbit," she said brightly.

"Great," came the reply.

* * *

**P6J-454, Milky Way**

The planet known as P6J-454 to the Tau'ri was better known to its inhabitants as Ekron, an important industrial world in the domain of Ba'al. As such, it possessed a moderate-sized defensive fleet to protect the naquadah mines and weapons facilities on the planet below.

What the residents did not know, however, was that thanks to the Rebel Jaffa subterfuge at the Acheron shipyards, where weapons marked as being manufactured on Ekron had been left, a fleet of ha'tak belonging to Anubis were on their way seeking revenge for Ba'al's grievous slight against their master.

As such, the first hyperspace reversions caught Ba'al's fleet completely by surprise. The upgraded ha'tak of Anubis immediately lashed out at the opposing fleet, whose ships started dropping like flies, unable to repel firepower of that magnitude.

The Goa'uld lord commanding the defensive fleet, Montu, quickly regrouped his forces and attacked the ships of Anubis, in an attempt to protect the factories below but it was no use. The weapons of the enemy cut through his fleet's shields and hulls with ease, destroying crucial systems, crippling and destroying his forces.

The last thing Montu saw was a bolt of brilliant gold energy streaking towards his ship, then all went dark.

On the bridge of Osiris' flagship the feeling was jubilant. They had struck back with impunity against those who would dare trouble their god. They did not care that they were starting a larger war, for war was the Goa'uld way.

The fleet started bombarding the industries from orbit, eager to hit Ba'al back in the same way as he had hit them.

* * *

Well then, it lives!

Reviews appreciated as always.

Unsure about the arrival of the next chapter. Might be sooner, might be later.


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